Twitter’s night mode gives your eyes a break on the desktop

Twitter’s night mode is all well and good if you’re checking your feed from your phone while in bed, but what if you prefer to burn the midnight oil at your PC? You’re set after today… or rather, tonight. Twitter has enabled night mode on the desktop web, giving your eyes a break when you just have to share your thoughts after dark. It’s not automatic, alas, but the quick toggle (it’s in the drop-down settings menu) means you can flick it on the moment the Sun goes down.

You didn’t necessarily need this to have a night mode. Dedicated Twitter apps like TweetDeck for Mac already display in the dark. However, this makes sure that night mode is available to virtually everyone, regardless of what platform they use.

You can now enable night mode on https://t.co/fuPJa3nVky! 🌙 Also available on Twitter for iOS and Android. https://t.co/9AjOwcv3Zn

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 6, 2017

Source: Twitter Support

Review: Emerson’s $200 Sensi Touch HomeKit Thermostat Offers a Large Color Display and Easy Setup

Fueled by the popularity of Nest, thermostats remain one of the more popular categories of smart home devices. I recently took at look at Honeywell’s Lyric Round thermostat with HomeKit support, and today I’m following up with Emerson’s latest HomeKit model, the Sensi Touch.

Announced back in May and launched in June, the Sensi Touch offers a horizontal design with a color touchscreen taking up much of the front of the device. Aside from onscreen controls, the Sensi Touch can also be managed via app or through HomeKit, offering a number of options for controls.

Installation

I’ve had a bit of previous experience swapping out thermostats, so I was already familiar with what needed to be done, and all told it took me less than 30 minutes to remove my old thermostat and get the Sensi Touch installed. After making sure the circuit breakers for my heating and air conditioning system were turned off, I launched the Sensi app on my iPhone and it walked me through all of the steps to get up and running.

It’s a great setup process, with easy to follow instructions that integrate with the iPhone’s Camera app to take a photo of your existing thermostat wiring for reference, as well as a terminal picker that lets you tell the app exactly which wires your current system uses so that it can guide you in connecting the Sensi Touch.

As with most other thermostats, the Sensi Touch comes in two pieces, a rear plate that is screwed to the wall and contains the terminals for the wiring coming out of the wall, paired with a main body that snaps onto the rear plate for a clean look.

The Sensi Touch’s rear plate is well designed, using small paddles under each terminal to secure the wires in their terminals. The paddles are big enough to press with your finger, yet the terminal array remains compact on the rear plate.

The rear plate also includes a handy light that can be operated by switch to help you see what you’re doing while connecting the wires. Once the thermostat is fully operational, this light can also be used as a night light to backlight the entire thermostat, but allowing it to be used during setup even without the main body of the thermostat installed is a really nice touch.

The Sensi Touch rear plate includes a pair of screw holes for mounting, one each with play in the horizontal and vertical directions to allow some flexibility. A built-in bubble level makes it easy to ensure everything is lined up properly. Unfortunately, my troublesome thermostat wiring setup with a full junction box located in the wall caused a few problems for me, albeit in a slightly different way than with the Honeywell Lyric Round.

On the positive side, the holes in the Sensi Touch rear plate line up perfectly with the junction box holes, making it simple to mount the thermostat. But its slim profile means the entire thermostat isn’t much larger than the junction box itself, and so a bit of rough drywall cutout around the box as well as a screw hole from my Lyric Round installation are visible even with the Sensi Touch fully installed. The screw hole is easy enough to patch, but cleaning up the ragged drywall along the top will be a bit more work.

Setup and App Controls

After the Sensi Touch is mounted to the wall and the circuit breakers are turned back on, the Sensi app continues to walk you through the setup process, allowing you to configure Wi-Fi and connect to HomeKit.

Once it’s connected, you can use either the thermostat interface itself or the Sensi app to set up schedules based on time and day of the week, automatically changing temperature set points throughout the day to account for comfortable sleeping conditions, times when you’re up and about, and times when you’re away.

Setting up schedules on the thermostat
Oddly, schedules can only be set directly on the Sensi Touch if you turn off Wi-Fi on the thermostat, and as I unfortunately discovered, once you turn off Wi-Fi there’s apparently no way to turn it back on and reconnect to the app without completely resetting the thermostat.

Display

While the Sensi Touch includes a color display, it retains a relatively monochromatic appearance to keep the look simple, opting for white text on various shades of either blue when in cooling mode or orange when in heating mode.

Home screen in heating mode
If you choose to manage schedules through the app, the functionality available through the thermostat is rather basic, primarily consisting of adjustments to the temperature setting and changing the fan and heating/cooling modes. Manually adjusting the temperature when a schedule is in effect will temporarily hold the new temperature until the next schedule change or for at least two hours.

Night light
Other options include preferences for the home screen such as whether to show indoor humidity and the time of day, as well as whether to use Fahrenheit or Celsius units. A separate page in the settings lets you turn on the backlight for use as a night light.

Sleep display while in heating mode
When you’re not interacting with the thermostat, you have the option of showing a blank screen or a dimmed screen that shows only the current inside temperature, again on a blue background for cooling or an orange background for heating. It’s a very bland look considering the large, color display, and I’d definitely prefer something a bit more interesting.

Sensi App

The app is pretty straightforward, offering a main screen that lets you manage multiple thermostats and then a summary screen for each thermostat that prominently displays the current temperature and humidity, as well as the weather for your location and the set point of the thermostat. Adjusting the set point is simple, requiring just a tap on arrows along the right side of the screen to raise or lower the temperature.

At the bottom of the main display are a pair of buttons, one that lets you change the mode among heating, cooling, automatic, or off, and the other that sets the fan to automatic or always-on. I wish those buttons were a little bigger as hit targets, but you’re not going to need to use them very often, so it’s not a big deal.

Additional tabs for each thermostat are accessible along the bottom of the screen. One is a Settings tab that primarily displays your setup information but also lets you adjust a few options such as whether temperatures are displayed in Fahrenheit or Celsius and whether the humidity and current time are displayed. More advanced settings include the ability to delay cooling on rapid cycles to prevent system damage, lock out control for the thermostat itself, customize an offset if the thermostat reads a different temperature than you expect, and change heating and cooling cycle rates.

The final tab is for Scheduling, which allows you to create or edit schedules based on time and day of the week and adjust temperatures based on activity in the home. A couple of advanced options let you create multiple schedules in case your needs vary from week to week and turn on an “Early Start” toggle that intelligently starts your heating or cooling early so that your home reaches your desired temperature right at the scheduled time.

The Sensi Touch also includes a beta geofencing feature, which will automatically set back the thermostat by three degrees once you’re more than three miles from home in order to save energy. It’s not as advanced as Honeywell’s geofencing which lets you define a custom radius and customize the set point for when you’re away, but at least it’s something.

The Sensi Touch will send alerts in a variety of situations to let you know of problems with your heating and air conditioning system, such as if inside temperature reaches 99ºF or 45ºF, humidity exceeds 78 percent, or inside temperature goes up or down by 5ºF even though the system is trying to cool or heat. It would be nice if these thresholds were customizable, but at a minimum the 5º alert should cover most circumstances where your system has failed. It would also be nice if the app could send reminders to change your air filters.

HomeKit

As a HomeKit thermostat, the Sensi Touch works with the Home app on iOS to help you see all of your HomeKit-compatible smart home devices in one app. You can easily adjust the thermostat’s temperature setting via the Home app or Siri, and you can incorporate it into scenes and triggers to integrate with other HomeKit accessories. For example, you can include the thermostat in a “Good night” scene that locks your front door, turns off lights, and adjusts the thermostat when you’re heading for bed.

Beyond simple temperature and mode settings and automation through HomeKit, other settings must be adjusted either on the thermostat itself or through the Sensi app.

Wrap-up

Emerson’s Sensi Touch is a nice addition to the HomeKit thermostat market. Its large color display is visually engaging when you’re interacting with it, although I wish it took better advantage of the display even when you’re simply glancing at it. The Sensi Touch’s touchscreen controls are responsive and setup is extremely easy, with a great app that walks you through everything you need to do.

On the downside, I wish the geofencing features were a little more robust, as I appreciated the customizability offered by Honeywell. The Sensi Touch also lacks many of the learning features that are the hallmark of Nest’s thermostats and which contribute significantly to energy savings. Finally, the inability to easily adjust schedules directly from the thermostat can be inconvenient.

At a list price of $200, the Sensi Touch is obviously much more expensive than a traditional thermostat, even digital ones that offer scheduling features, but it’s competitive with other smart thermostats, particularly if you can find it cheaper such as through Amazon where we’ve occasionally seen it for as low as $159 through third-party sellers, but availability varies significantly and pricing is more typically in the $180–$200 range.

Note: Emerson provided the Sensi Touch to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Tags: HomeKit, review, Emerson
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Apple Developer Site Down as Developers Report Possible Hack

Apple’s Developer site has been down for a couple of hours now, and while it originally seemed like the outage was related to maintenance, a few reports trickling in from developers suggests there could potentially be another cause.

Several developers are reporting that all of their developer account addresses have been updated with an address in Russia, perhaps indicating some kind of breach or serious internal error. According to multiple developer reports, their accounts list a Russian address instead of their correct address.

All my teams on Developer Member Center at @apple are registered in Russia. Nice. pic.twitter.com/kyYyRyLTR7

— Dal Rupnik (@TheLegoless) September 6, 2017

It’s not clear what’s going on with the developer site at this time. We have reached out to Apple for more information and will update this post should any new information become available.

@apple developer account addresses are all showing an address in Russia…

— David Negron (@dave_negron) September 6, 2017

Back in 2013, Apple’s Developer Center was breached by hackers and was taken offline for several days as Apple worked to fix the breach, rebuild the developer database, and implement better security practices. At that time, Apple said sensitive personal information was encrypted and inaccessible, but some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and email addresses may have been leaked.
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Best iOS app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes Apple apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest iOS app deals available from the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Magic Launcher

Magic Launcher is the only Today Widget App Launcher you will ever need. With the ability to launch more than 100,000 apps and actions from the Today Widget in the Notification Center, it makes using your iPhone even easier.

Available on:

iOS

iOrtho+

iOrtho+ is the number one mobile guide for orthopedic special tests and manual techniques. This app is developed from advanced, evidence-based knowledge, and extensive clinical practice.

Available on:

iOS

Fimly

Fimly is based on a groundbreaking realtime 3D rendering technology. Create incredible movies with pictures from your camera roll. Just select your favorite pictures and let the app do the rest.

Available on:

iOS

Edgar Allan Poe

Download the most macabre wallpapers inspired on the stories of the master of terror himself, Edgar Allan Poe. Dive down to the darkest side of the human soul with these 27 wallpapers with original illustrations by David Garcia Fores.

Available on:

iOS

Vocabulary

Looking for tips for improving your vocabulary? Whether you are trying to strengthen and broaden your vocabulary for school or personal growth, the key is a commitment to regularly learning new words.

Available on:

iOS

Drift

Drift is a simple, elegant, and beautifully designed travel planner that is solely focused on the places you plan to visit. It is perfect for a vacation itinerary and everyday to-do agenda.

Available on:

iOS

The ergonomic Logitech MX Ergo is looking to avoid wrist strain

Why it matters to you

Trackballs may not be the mousing tech de jour, but they do have their place and Logitech is looking to reinvigorate the technology for modern mousing.

The trackball isn’t a common technology in most contemporary mice, but the Logitech MX Ergo is looking to bring it back to popularity with a number of innovations. With adjustable angles and an ergonomic design, Logitech claims that this mouse can help reduce muscle strain by a noticeable margin.

As an input mechanism, the trackball is one of the oldest, having been initially invented back in the 1940s. It has seen some modern usage, but far less commonly than mice with optical and laser sensors. Logitech is looking to change that though, by reinventing the trackball with its MX Ergo mouse, with supportive ergonomics, a “precision mode” switch, Easy-Switch function, and a built-in battery with a long shelf life.

The Logitech MX Ergo has the body of a standard, ergonomic mouse, with the addition of a chunky trackball on the left-hand side. That’s what you’ll use to control your mouse pointer’s movement, offering control at a customizable sensitivity. Precision Mode lets you fine tune movements even further, which should be useful in creative applications where minute movements are required.

It’s no gaming mouse, but anyone who’s used a “Sniper Mode,” will be very familiar with these sorts of functions. Logitech has even included a visual indicator that shows when Precision Mode is activated with LED lighting.

The big feature that the peripheral maker is touting with this device, though, is its comfort. With a combination of a broad finger rest on the right-hand side, a deep back for a palm rest and the ability to tweak the mouse’s angle using its adjustable hinge (up to 20 degrees) Logitech claims that it can have a real impact on wrist posture and comfort.

Additional features include Easy-Switch, which lets you jump from one PC to another with the click of a button, and Logitech Flow, which lets you copy and paste content between those different systems.

The mouse supports both Windows and Mac systems and has a fast-recharge battery that can last for up to four months on a single full charge.

The Logitech MX Ergo will be available throughout U.S. retailers this month with a price tag of $100. An “exclusive edition,” called the MX Ergo Plus is also set to go on sale in Best Buy locations for the same price.

If that’s too expensive for your tastes, check out our guide of the best wireless mice available today. There are a few more affordable options in there.

iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 7 Plus camera: Is it worth the pricey upgrade?

Love it or hate it, Apple has been the face of new technology for decades. Case in point: The iPhone. The idea of a smartphone wasn’t anything new in 2007, but Apple made it mainstream by offering a phone that was powerful, revolutionary — and most importantly — friendly to use.

The iPhone has changed how we communicate with one another and later models turned any average Joe into a decent photographer, thanks to the phone’s impressive megapixel count, fast shutter speed, and clever software. Apple continues the trend of putting powerful cameras into phones and we have no doubt the forthcoming models, especially the iPhone 8, will impress, but the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are both still packing great cameras that won’t disappoint.

The question is — when you pin the iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 7 Plus camera against each other — do you choose the cheaper option, or pay extra for one awesome feature?

More similarities than you think

On the numbers sheet, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are tied. They both have a 12-megapixel rear camera with a 28mm wide-angle lens and f/1.8 aperture, as well as a 7-megapixel front-facing camera.

Both cameras have an easy time identifying and focusing on bodies and faces, and the rear camera is equipped with optical image stabilization (OIS) while the front camera has automatic image stabilization. According to Apple, the photos you take will also look better on your 7 and 7 Plus than they would on a Samsung or LG phone thanks to Apple’s pretty cool Wide Color technology.

Along with the panorama feature and True Tone flash, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus both have fantastic cameras, but where the iPhone 7’s impressive features tap out is where the 7 Plus just gets started.

Two lenses are better than one

The biggest pro for getting an iPhone 7 Plus over an iPhone 7 is the dual 12-megapixel rear cameras. Whereas the 7 just has the one 28mm wide-angle lens, the 7 Plus has that and a 56mm telephoto lens with a f/2.8 aperture. What that means for you is that you are finally able to zoom in without having to sacrifice clarity. The zoom, unfortunately, is only really good up to the 2x mark, but still, if this leads us to a future of not having to deal with pixelated, low-quality, zoomed in photos, then it is a solid starting place.

The 7 Plus camera also takes a cue from DSLRs by offering a cool bokeh feature that utilizes the dual lenses to let you focus on the subject of the photo and blur out the background.

Winner: iPhone 7 Plus

The iPhone 7’s camera is pretty sweet and for some people, it is more than enough to snap vacation pics and keep your Instagram feed full. But for the aspiring or professional photographer who notices little details and doesn’t want to sacrifice quality when they feel inspired to spontaneously take shots, the 7 Plus does enough to justify that extra price tag.

The bell tolls for Yellow Pages, which is publishing its last print books

Why it matters to you

After more than five decades, the Yellow Pages won’t be showing up at your doorstep in the near future.

The internet has claimed its latest victim. Don’t worry, it’s not the collective mind of our progeny (though that might be at risk as well), but rather the venerable Yellow Pages, that guidebook that you once thought you couldn’t live without. Alas, the rise of the web and the digitization of information has proven that nothing is forever — not even giant books.

At the beginning of September, Yell, the company behind the Yellow Pages, announced it would carry out the final print cycle of its nostalgic reference books. From now on, the company is going digital. The first of the last 104 editions will be distributed in Kingston, England, in January and the last edition will make its rounds in January 2019 in Brighton, England. Fittingly, this is also where the first Yellow Pages were distributed.

Initially published in 1966, those familiar yellow pages have spent more than five decades as a key information source for customers looking for local businesses. But now, denizens of the internet are looking increasingly to Facebook pages and Yelp reviews to find new hot spots.

Still, it would appear that Yell is taking everything in stride. As CEO Richard Hanscott noted in a statement, ‘‘After 51 years in production Yellow Pages is a household name and we’re proud to say that we still have customers who’ve been with us from the very first Yellow Pages edition in 1966. How many brands can say they’ve had customers with them for over 50 years?”

But don’t worry — just because Yell won’t be publishing books anymore doesn’t mean it’s going away. Rather, it’s just going to where the businesses are — online. Yell launched a new pledge to help a million businesses be found, chosen, and trusted by more customers online in the next three years.

As Hanscott concluded, ‘’We’re proud of the transformation we’ve made from print to digital.  Like many businesses, Yell has found that succeeding in digital demands constant change and innovation. We’re well placed to continue to help local businesses and consumers be successful online, both now and in the future.’’

At the very least, you can stop feeling guilty about throwing away all that paper at the end of every year.

Next-gen gene editor will be the CRISPR sequel we’ve been waiting for

Why it matters to you

New DNA base editor could be superior to CRISPR when it comes to reducing potential mistakes.

Just when we were getting used to the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing revolution, a new “fourth-generation” DNA base editor has come along — offering a new way to modify the genetic code that may be safer in terms of reducing potential mistakes.

Base editing is a relatively new approach to genome editing. It describes a technique in which a target point mutation is directly converted back to the normal DNA sequence on a permanent basis, without having to introduce a double-stranded cut in the DNA. Because most human genetic variants associated with disease are point mutations, base editing could offer a means by which to advance the study and future treatment of human genetic diseases. The fourth-generation base editor offers a way to improve base editing efficiencies, while greatly reducing undesired byproducts — thereby making the edits much “cleaner”.

“Standard CRISPR-mediated genome editing uses CRISPR-Cas9 nuclease to make a double-stranded cut at a target DNA site, then relies on the cell’s response to that cut to install desired DNA changes,” study co-author David Liu, a Harvard University professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, told Digital Trends. “Cutting-based strategies have their own strengths, but one challenge facing cutting-based approaches is that making double-stranded breaks in genomic DNA tends to result in a stochastic mixture of products containing insertions, deletions, and translocations at the cut site.”

Liu points out that he doesn’t see CRISPR/Cas9 being entirely replaced by the new technique, however. Instead, he thinks both strategies combined will play complementary roles in the future treatment of genetic diseases. “Our lab, as well as many others, are using base editing to research genetic variants that play a role in disease, and to validate potential therapeutic strategies that might one day be used to reverse the root causes of some of these diseases,” he continued.

Given some of the amazing work that has already been achieved through CRISPR gene editing — from carrying out genetic modifications to make animal organs suitable for human transplant to more “far out” demonstrations like encoding GIFs into the DNA of viruses — we can’t wait to see what comes next.

A paper describing the work of Liu and colleagues was recently published in the journal Science Advances.

T-Mobile’s family plans now come with free Netflix (Yep, you heard us)

Why it matters to you

Just in time for Stranger Things’ return, T-Mobile is handing out free Netflix subscriptions to its subscribers — and who doesn’t love free stuff?

T-Mobile has given its customers some strange and noteworthy perks over the years — discounts on gas, movies, and, of course, free pizza. But its latest giveaway might be its best yet: free Netflix. The carrier just announced that qualifying customers of its T-Mobile One unlimited plan will be able to redeem a monthly subscription starting September 12.

For those who have Netflix — which at this point might be more-or-less equal to the percentage of T-Mobile users who don’t — the network will issue you back the cost of the streaming service on your bill. Over the course of the year, that means you’ll save $120, simply by being an existing Netflix customer.

The only catch as far as we can tell is that you’ll need two lines on the plan. So if you’re flying solo with T-Mobile One, you won’t be able to get in on the deal.

Free Netflix would be enough to hype up most customers — but this is T-Mobile, a company that has a flair for the dramatic. In addition to the promotion, the company is kicking off a “Netflix Meme-a-thon” starting at 9 a.m. PT on Thursday, September 7. Fans are encouraged to chime in throughout the day with memes, GIFs, quotes, and any manner of Netflix-based enthusiasm, and every hour on the hour, T-Mobile will hand out swag, gadgets, and phones. Follow the T-Mobile Twitter account and use the hashtags #NetflixOnUs and #contest, and you’ll also be in the running to attend the premier of season 2 of Stranger Things.

Fortunately, the Netflix deal doesn’t exclude customers who may have joined T-Mobile through its recent free line promotion. Under the carrier’s current pricing structure, one line costs $70, two cost $60 each, three cost $47 each, and four cost $40 each. That includes taxes and fees. Though if you’re excited at the Netflix offer, you might be dismayed to know that the standard One plan only allows for 480p streaming quality.

To allow HD streaming, you’ll have to spring for One Plus, which adds an extra $10 to each line, per month. Prior to the summer, Plus only ran an extra $5, and for a short time, T-Mobile allowed non-Plus customers to stream in full quality.

5 things to do before upgrading to Gigabit internet

Long-awaited gigabit internet speeds are finally coming to a growing number of cities, as fiber infrastructure improves and companies offer ultra-fast service packages. But are you and your devices ready for upgrading to gigabit internet?

While in practice internet speeds are determined by a hodge-podge of factors (including router setup), gigabit-level services are still worth getting excited over, especially if you have struggled with slower-than-convenient speeds in the past. But it’s important to make sure that you and your devices are ready to take advantage of the new potential speeds! Here are five steps to prepare properly.

Set up quality wired connections

Wired connections are generally better for gigabit speeds because of their reliability and lack of interference. If you want the best benefits of gigabit internet, you need the right wired connections. It’s particularly important to sort out the wired connection from the internet modem to your router.

The good news is that most modern ethernet ports manufactured in the last few years are in the gigabit ethernet range.The bad news is that if you have a router or other wired device that’s older than that, it may be using an older type of ethernet connection that will not be able to support your new, exciting speeds. If so, the router will bottleneck your entire home network.

If you don’t have a clue what kind of ports your router has, find the product number and look up the specifications online to see what type of ports it has. You can also do this with your computers to check on factory cards and connections. Everything should be rated for gigabit speeds, or 1,000 Mbps. You can also look in your Settings or “About This Computer” section to see if it offers more information on your connections.

Finally, it’s worthwhile taking a glance at the ethernet cables themselves. They should be at least Cat5e or higher to support these speeds. These cables are cheap and easy to replace if necessary, so don’t assume you have to stick with old cables when upgrading to gigabit internet.

Make sure your devices support the latest Wi-Fi standards

Piotr Adamowicz

If you won’t be using a wired connection on a particular device, check to see what Wi-Fi standards it supports. The official gigabit-compatible Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ac, which is the code you want to look for when searching for production specifications online. This isn’t the factor at work here, but it’s one of the most important, and one of the easiest to check.

As with gigabit ethernet, this standard has been around for several years and is supported by newer devices, but old devices may have a problem. Your router should absolutely support the “ac” wireless standard. If it doesn’t, it’s time for an upgrade, because older Wi-Fi standards will seriously bottleneck a gigabit internet connection.

Desktops and laptops that don’t support 802.11ac can be upgraded easily with a USB adapter. These typically sell for $20 to $50. If buying for a desktop, look for an adapter that at least provides the option to replace or move the antenna. That will help you find the best connectivity possible.

If your mobile devices do not support the “ac” standard, that’s a tougher decision. These devices can’t be upgraded to a new Wi-Fi standard. Replacing that device may be costly, but it won’t be able to benefit from your new gigabit service like a newer model would.

Set up your Wi-Fi router’s 5GHz band

Many routers are now dual band, which means they support the common 2.4GHz band and the less-used 5GHz band. That 5GHz option really shines in certain respects. It may not have as much range at the original band, but there’s a lot less “noise,” or wireless tech chatter, at 5GHz. That means the 5GHz band can provide a clearer signal, and help you draw closer to those sweet gigabit-level speeds.

Most dual band routers will urge you to create and name a 5GHz channel during setup, so check to see if you have one or can create one. You also have to remember to use it. You may mentally default to the regular band out of habit, but that can seriously downgrade the performance of your connected device.

If your router isn’t dual band, consider a replacement. It’s likely that the router doesn’t support 802.11ac, either, because most 802.11ac routers also support dual-band wireless.

Update firmware and operating systems

If your router has gigabit ethernet, the latest Wi-Fi standard, and a 5Ghz Wi-Fi band already set up and ready to go, then you’re in luck! However, you should still check to make sure that the firmware is updated to the latest version, just to make sure everything is running smoothly.

You can check for firmware updates by logging into your router administrator console with the right address, and we can help walk you through that process. Once in the router settings, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for upgrading the device. If you have enabled automatic updates, then you don’t need to worry about this step.

It’s also a good idea to update all your other devices too, especially if there are updates that you have been putting off. Many general OS updates include qualify of life changes that improve general performance and efficiency. Barring any notable bugs, it’s a good idea to let these updates go through so that your devices are performing to the best of their ability.

Run speeds tests on devices to find weak spots

Christian de Looper/Digital Trends

There are a number of effective online speed tests you can run on both wired and wireless devices. Try a few tests on your most-used devices during the time of day when you are likely to use them.

Running a test before your upgrade will help you find an average baseline of your current speeds to compare to your gigabit speeds after the upgrade. Run the tests again with gigabit internet, and boast about the difference!

If you get gigabit internet and your speeds don’t change very much (all other things being equal), you know that you need to investigate further to see what’s causing the bottleneck.

You can also check how speed varies between wireless and wired. If the difference is considerable, you can make decisions about which devices really need to be wired for the best performance. You can also identify wireless dead spots that might need to be fixed. For more information on that, check out our guide on boosting Wi-Fi speeds.