Apple Seeds Ninth Beta of iOS 12 to Developers

Apple today seeded the ninth beta of an upcoming iOS 12 update to developers for testing purposes, five days after seeding the eighth beta and more than two months after introducing the new software at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12 beta from Apple’s Developer Center or over-the-air after installing the proper certificate.

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iOS 12 introduces several major new features, with Apple revamping the operating system from top to bottom to make iPhones and iPads, especially the older models, faster and more responsive.

On the iPhone X, there are new Animoji characters along with “Memoji,” which are customizable, personalized, humanoid Animoji that can be used both in Messages and in FaceTime, and there are new camera effects in both of those apps.

Apple originally planned to introduce Group FaceTime support in iOS 12, but the feature was removed in iOS 12 beta 7 and will not be reintroduced until later this fall in a future update to iOS 12.

Siri is smarter in iOS 12 with a new Shortcuts feature that lets you create multi-step customized automations using first and third-party apps that can be activated with Siri voice commands. Shortcuts can be created through the Shortcuts app, available as a beta from Apple’s Developer Center.

Apple built comprehensive time management and monitoring tools into iOS 12 with Screen Time, allowing you to keep track of how much time you’re spending in apps on your iPhone and iPad. App limits can help you cut back on iOS device usage, and robust parental controls are included for families.

Updated Do Not Disturb options make activating Do Not Disturb more intuitive and simple, and a new Do Not Disturb at Bedtime feature cuts down on nighttime distractions and sleep interruptions.

Grouped Notifications make incoming notifications easier to view and manage, while a new Instant Tuning feature lets you tweak your notification settings right on the Lock screen on a notification-by-notification basis.

Apple News has a new Browse feature, the Stocks app has been redesigned and brought to the iPad, iBooks has been overhauled with a new look and a new name — Apple Books — and Voice Memos has been revamped with iCloud support and an iPad app.

ARKit 2.0 introduces new capabilities like shared experiences that let two people see the same AR environment on separate devices, and persistence, which allows AR experiences to be saved across multiple sessions. There’s also a new Apple-built Measure app for measuring objects using AR capabilities.

iOS 12 includes a revamped and rebuilt Maps app that uses a new Apple-designed Maps engine that will display foliage, pools, buildings, pedestrian pathways, and other map elements more accurately. The new Maps also includes significant improvements to traffic, real-time road conditions, construction, and more, plus it will enable Apple to push out changes and fixes more quickly.

The updated Maps app is available in the Northern California area during beta testing. After iOS 12 launches, Apple will continue rolling out the new maps to additional U.S. locations across late 2018 and 2019.

Tons of other small tweaks and features have been added to iOS 12, so make sure to check out our dedicated roundup for additional detail on what’s new in iOS 12.

New betas of upcoming operating system updates always introduce tweaked features and new functionality, and we’ll be outlining what’s new in the seventh beta below. We also rounded up all of the changes that were introduced in the previous betas: beta 2 and beta 3, beta 4, beta 5, beta 6, and beta 7.

We’re on beta 9 rather than beta 8 because Apple last week was forced to release an extra iOS beta to address issues in the seventh beta that were causing slow app launch times.

iOS 12 is available for developers and public beta testers, with a public launch planned for September alongside new iPhones.

What’s new in iOS 12 beta 9: According to Apple’s release notes, traffic data might not be displayed properly in iOS 12 beta 9. Apple suggests affected customers Tap the ‘i’ button to reveal Maps Settings and toggle the Traffic switch on.

Start and stop times for Downtime might unexpectedly change if they were configured prior to installing the ninth beta, so Downtime start and stop times will need to be reset after updating.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
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Should you buy the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo?

The undisputed champion of wireless charging has something new for you to check out.

When it comes to wireless chargers, there’s Samsung and then there’s everything else. Samsung chargers are just plain better, from the way they look to the amount of power they dispense, these things are a great addition to any desk or bedside table.

But with the launch of the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy Watch, Samsung took its wireless charging ambitions to the next level. A wireless charger designed to power a watch and a phone at the same time, thanks to multiple sections on the platter to place your devices. It’s not a new idea, and unlike Apple’s version of a multi-device charger it is actually available to purchase immediately after announcement, but should you grab one for yourself?

See at Amazon

Charge all the things

The cool thing about Samsung’s chargers is the way they follow a global spec, which means you don’t need to have a Samsung-specific device to use it. Like its predecessors, the Wireless Charger Duo will charge anything which also follows the standard Qi charging spec. This applies to the phone side as well as the watch side, in fact you can even charge a phone on the watch side if you really wanted to. Aside from the groove designed to keep a watch from sliding off the pad, the only difference between the left and right side of the pad is the left has a pair of charging coils so you can charge your phone vertically or horizontally. As the right side lays flat, that’s obviously unnecessary.

Unlike its predecessors, you have no control over the angle your phone sits at when charging.

That faster charging side is almost the same as the Fast Charge pad Samsung started selling earlier this year. It charges your phone a little faster than most other wireless chargers, but not quite as fast as a Fast Charge power adapter or a USB-C PD adapter. These are good bedside or desk chargers, but not what you would lean on if you needed a quick top up.

And if you’re a fan of using a wireless charger on your bedside table, the increased size of the Wireless Charger Duo may be a concern for you. Samsung’s usual chargers are about six inches wide and three inches long, but this Duo charger measures up to be a noticeably larger eight and a half inches wide. And unlike its predecessors, you have no control over the angle your phone sits at when charging.

One very cool thing you’re not going to find with most of the wireless chargers Samsung has made in the past is multiple color options. In the past, these chargers have been a matte black or a dark blue with grippy surfaces everywhere, but the Wireless Charger Duo is available in both a glossy black and a glassy white. This isn’t a huge deal, but the choice is nice if you’re looking for something that won’t stick out terribly in a well-designed room.

Should you buy the Wireless Charger Duo? Probably not

If you’ve got a phone and a watch with wireless charging capabilities, the Wireless Charger Duo is a great way to save a power outlet. And it looks nice, especially compared to some of the other chargers out there with multi-device support.

But like anything else, you’re going to pay quite a bit for the privilege. This charger is $120 currently, which is a lot to ask for something that charges your phone. It’s not a huge price leap from the $90 9W fast charger released earlier this year, but even that charger has come down substantially over the last couple of months. In most stores you can find it for $50, which is way less than the cost of a Wireless Charger Duo.

An expensive option

Samsung Wireless Charger Duo

$120 at Amazon

The Samsung Wireless Charger Duo is nicely-designed and easy to use, but its $120 is way more than twice the price of two excellent high-speed wireless chargers.

Don’t miss out on this one-day sale full of awesome Nerf guns and gear

Stock up now!

Amazon has a variety of Nerf guns and accessories on sale today as part of its Gold Box deals of the day. From popular guns like the Nerf Rival Phantom Corps to the Zombie Doublestrike Blaster, face masks, and even the Vortex Aero Howler football, there’s something in this sale for everyone.

Some of these are add-on items, meaning they only ship with qualifying orders of $25 or more, but with prices starting at just $4.89 you will want to check them all out.

Some of our favorite deals include:

• 20-pack Elite MEGA dart refill – $8 (Was $12)
• N-Stroke Elite Firestrike – $8.11 (Was $12)
• Phantom Corps Kronos – $10.05 (Was $15)
• Negotiator Blaster – $13.81 (Was $20)
• Rival Deadpool Apollo – $20.98 (Was $35)
• Double Dealer Blaster – $27.37 (Was $40)
• Rival Prometheus – $139.99 (Was $200)

This is just a small selection of what’s available, so be sure to check them all out now and grab some before the deals disappear.

See at Amazon

Drive back the forces of hell in DOOM Eternal for PlayStation 4

id Software doubles down on DOOM’s gory renaissance.

At E3 2018, id Software announced a new entry in the DOOM franchise. Dubbed DOOM Eternal, it’s a continuation of the 2016 reboot that set the franchise on a new path. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

What is DOOM Eternal?

For quite some time, DOOM was an IP that existed in a state closely resembling limbo. Sure, the games haven’t been totally terrible, but it was clear how far removed we were from the glory years. That changed with the reboot of the franchise in 2016.

Aptly and succinctly titled DOOM, it was a huge success. It was one of the best feeling shooters to launch on contemporary consoles, and the game didn’t shy away from the blood and gore that made the series what it is. (It also helped that the storyline wasn’t cheesier than a box of Velveeta.)

DOOM was a huge success, so it’s no surprise the developers want to take that formula and keep it going with DOOM Eternal. It’ll be the first game developed with id Tech 7, which features 10 times the graphical fidelity that the previous engine was capable of. We’re not even sure if that sort of leap will be possible for the PlayStation 4 version of DOOM Eternal to pull off, but it sounds like we’re in for big improvements regardless.

What’s going on in DOOM Eternal?

One of the things id Software wanted to do with the series is take it back even further. While DOOM was a nice ode to the classic no-frills shooting gallery, it didn’t attempt to drum up cheap sales with overindulging nods to the original. It was a nice balance of a classic concept with modern gameplay, graphics, weapons, and devastating finishing moves.

Now that it can stand on its own merit, DOOM Eternal isn’t afraid to be the fanservice game that’ll rope in any remaining holdout players who didn’t believe the reboot would do the series justice. There will be references to many of the classic elements of the original DOOM games, including throwback weapons and newer takes on veteran enemies such as the Zombieman, Arachnotron, Archville, and Pain Elemental. Those guys will be joined by newcomers known as the Marauder and Doom Hunter, among others.

The story picks up where DOOM (2016) left off, with you — playing as the menacing DOOM Slayer — to try and stop a demonic uprising. You find yourself on Mars, and your goal is to stop the man responsible for all of the chaos. His name is Samuel Hayden, a scientist who somehow bridged the gates of hell to Earth.

He was mostly genuine in his endeavor, as the only reason his research facility even attempted something like this was to help solve an energy crisis on Earth. Somehow, it never occurred to him that summoning a demon apocalypse was the wrong way to go about that.

Scrambling to come up with a solution, he released the DOOM Slayer to end the invasion, but he knew it was a dangerous creature that threatened all in the universe, and that he had to dispatch it once the deed was done. His failsafe was to banish the DOOM Slayer instead of killing it, but that plan doesn’t seem like it’ll end up working out in the long run.

What do you do in DOOM Eternal?

Take the first gun you can find and go absolutely nuts on a horde of demons. Seriously, DOOM Eternal is all about killing. Kill as much as you can, as often as you can.

There will be no shortage of ways to go about doing that. Some of the weapons you can wield include a combat shotgun, a rocket launcher, a plasma rifle, a super shotgun, a heavy cannon, and even a whole ballista. Melee weapons will probably be the most fun, though.

The Crucible Blade is an energy sword imbued with demonic power. Or you could just wield the trusty old chainsaw. Your choice. Once your foes are weakened enough, you can finish them off with insanely cool Glory Kill executions, which lets you get your hands dirty and kill the things without the use of a weapon.

OK, so killing isn’t all you do. There’s still the matter of story objectives to tend to. These objectives typically don’t amount to much more than “run here, press Square, run back, shoot demons along the way,” but that’s fine. DOOM Eternal should make that cycle a lot more interesting, however, with a twisted world to traverse in new ways. You can run up walls, zip around with a grappling hook, and dash around to get where you need to go, which means the level design should be even more interesting than it was in DOOM.

New to DOOM Eternal are “extra lives,” which grant you a brief period of invincibility in moments where you’d otherwise die. These can be found at random and picked up by the player. It eliminates a pain point from the original game where dying meant you had to be whisked back to the beginning of a level to do it all over again.

Some hardcore DOOM players may not accept that help with open arms, though it does sound like you can refuse to pick these extra lives up if you’re more of a purist. Really, it sounds like they were meant more for DOOM Eternal’s Invasion mode, which we’ll touch on right now.

Invasion Mode

DOOM Eternal will feature an exciting new mode known as Invasion. Invasion mode allows other players to join your game, but it’s not what you think. They won’t be helping you stop the demon army — they are the demon army. They’ll be among the crowd of uglies looking to take you down and will have access to their own combat abilities to help them in that goal.

You don’t have to play with this mode turned on if you just want to chill out and enjoy the campaign, but it should offer a nice change of pace for players who tire of dealing with the AI. And, of course, all the other usual multiplayer modes return, including Team Deathmatch, Warpath (King of the Hill), Domination, and Clan Arena.

Is SnapMap coming back?

DOOM featured an interesting level creation tool that allowed you to create custom hellacious funhouses to share with folks all around the globe. Unfortunately, id Software doesn’t deem it crucial to DOOM Eternal’s featureset, so they’ve axed the feature to focus their efforts elsewhere.

Part of those efforts includes more post-launch single player content. Story-driven DLC should be more plentiful as a result, and we’re sure more than just a fair share of that extra time went into the creation of the Invasion mode.

When can you play it?

DOOM Eternal is currently in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. There’s no exact release date yet, but with Amazon showing a December 31st, 2019 placeholder date, it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing it until sometime that year.

See at Amazon

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4 things that’d make the Lenovo Smart Display even better

Lenovo’s Smart Display is great, but there’s still some work to be done.

I’ve been living with the Lenovo Smart Display for a few weeks now, and during that time, it’s quickly become one of my favorite gadgets of 2018. As a huge fan of the Google Home, it’s been a dream come true to have that same functionality brought over to a form factor with a large, crisp 10-1-inch screen.

I genuinely love using the Smart Display, but for all the things it gets right, there are a few pain points that I’d like to see get worked out sooner rather than later.

Without further ado, here are 4 things that’d make the Lenovo Smart Display better!

Portrait orientation for the entire UI

One of the most unique aspects of the Lenovo Smart Display is its wedge design on the back. Because of this, you have the option of standing it either horizontally or vertically on your kitchen counter, table, etc. Unfortunately, at the time of publishing this editorial, the vast majority of the interface can only be used in that horizontal orientation.

You can set the Smart Display vertically during Google Duo calls and have the interface rotate as it should, but outside of these calls, everything is set to the standard horizontal layout no matter how the Smart Display is sitting.

Lenovo’s already said that this will be fixed in a future software update, but for the time being, it makes the wedge aspect of the Smart Display feel underutilized.

Support for audio groups

If you’ve got a Google Home, Home Mini, or any other smart speakers that are powered by the Google Assistant, you can add them to audio groups and play music on all of them simultaneously — allowing you to hear your music or podcast no matter which room you’re in.

It’s an incredibly handy feature and one that I use daily, but for whatever reason, the Lenovo Smart Display can’t be added to these groups.

Although the form factor is different due to the display, there shouldn’t be anything holding it back from playing music with other Assistant speakers. The Lenovo Smart Display lives in the Google Home app along with your other speakers, uses the Assistant, and has access to all of the same voice commands/features.

Yet, for some unknown reason, Google still doesn’t allow it to to be added to audio groups.

That may not sound like a huge deal to some readers, but it makes the Smart Display feel entirely separate from its speaker cousins when it should feel like an extension of them.

Deeper app controls

As it currently stands, the Lenovo Smart Display doesn’t run traditional apps. There are UI elements that are designed specifically for Spotify, YouTube, Google Express, and more, but you get to all of these via voice commands rather than tapping on an app icon.

That implementation is fine, but for the interfaces we do get for these services, I’d like to see more controls added at some point down the road.

Being able to pull up recipes is great, but it’d be even better if there was a way to quickly add all of the required ingredients to my shopping list. YouTube videos stream without a hitch, but I’d like to be able to browse through my subscription feed and manually choose what video I want to watch. The Google Express interface that we do have is fine, but there’s no way to easily peruse through all of the available products like there is on the Android app.

The idea of Google’s Smart Display platform is to have UI elements that complement your voice controls rather than being entirely touch-focused, but some of the experiences that are available right now feel a little too barebones at times.

A more consistent ambient mode

When you aren’t actively using the Lenovo Smart Display, you can swipe to the right and set the display to an ambient mode where the screen turns completely back and just shows the time in the bottom-left corner. It’s a great mode for when you’re sleeping and know you won’t be using the Smart Display for a while, but in my experience, the performance of this has been all over the place.

Manually swiping over to this screen works fine, but I’ve noticed that it occasionally goes to this mode on its own, too.

For example, if I turn off all the lights as I’m heading out of my apartment, the Smart Display will gradually dim its brightness and eventually go to the ambient mode on its own. If I walk by the Smart Display while it’s like this, the screen will magically come to life without having to touch it or anything.

Unfortunately, these automatic transitions are incredibly inconsistent.

I’ve noticed that they properly work maybe 50% of the time, and for the times that it doesn’t work, it does this for no rhyme or reason. This certainly isn’t a deal-breaker or anything on its own, but the inconsistency can quickly become rather annoying.

What do you want to see?

If you’ve got a Lenovo Smart Display, what would you like to see added/fixed? Most (if not all) of my complaints can be resolved with software updates, so here’s to hoping those make their way to the device in a timely manner!

See at Best Buy

Fitbit announces Charge 3 fitness tracker, coming this October for $150

Pre-orders for the new tracker are live starting today.

Fitbit’s been hitting the smartwatch market pretty hard over the past few months with its Ionic and Versa, and following those two wearables, the company’s now going back to revive one of its most popular fitness tracker series with the all-new Fitbit Charge 3.

The Charge 3 is an evolution of the Charge 2 that came out before it, and while it has the same general form factor as its predecessor, Fitbit spent a lot of time making sure that the Charge 3 is a more comfortable and stylish tracker. Aerospace aluminum was used for the Charge 3’s case while Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covers its display, and speaking of that display, the one on the Charge 3 is a gray-scale OLED panel that’s 40% brighter and sharper than the screen on the Charge 2.

There’s also a lot more you can do on the display. The dashboard from the Ionic and Versa is now on the Charge 3, too, allowing you to quickly see your steps, calories-burned, most recent exercises, heart-rate, and your current cycle if you’re using Fitbit’s female health tracking tools.

On the non-fitness side of things, the Charge 3 can also showcase all notifications you receive from your phone, supports apps such as Uber, Facebook, etc., and can make contactless NFC payments using Fitbit Pay if you pick up the Special Edition version of it.

Other highlights of the Charge 3 include up to 7 days of battery life, over 15 goal-based exercise routines you can follow, water resistance up to 50M, a new Swim Mode that allows for better tracking while in the water, and more. Along with the Charge 3, Fitbit’s also launching a new platform called Sleep Score that aims to provide better insights on data tracked while you’re sleeping.

If you’re interested, the Charge 3 is up for pre-order today and will be released at some point this October. Pricing starts at $149.95 for the base model and goes up to $169.95 for the Special Edition.

See at Fitbit

From the forums: Should you get the Note 8 now that the Note 9 is out?

Depending on who you are, the Note 8 might still be a great buy.

On August 24, the Galaxy Note 9 will officially exit the pre-order stage and be released out in the wild for everyone to buy. Our full review of the phone left us rather impressed, and although it’s not a drastic upgrade from the Note 8, there are a lot of subtle improvements here and there that create for an excellent user experience.

The Note 9 is obviously a great buy, but if you’re rocking a smartphone that’s a couple years old, is the Note 8 still worth considering now that its successor is here?

Here’s what some of our AC forum members had to say!

methodman89
08-19-2018 08:03 AM

“

I think I will be on the lookout for a good deal on a used note 8 once the n9 is out.

Reply

yarnsrj
08-19-2018 10:48 AM

“

Note 8 is still an excellent phone, but if both you and the misses need new phones, look at the current BOGO deals for the Note 9. That way both of you can have brand new phones for about the same price with this buy one get one free deal. Take a look at Verizon’s offers on their website.
PS. I tried to post a link but it’s not looking to Verizon page.

Reply

o4liberty
08-19-2018 06:45 PM

“

Absolutely would not hesitate to purchase a note 8 works well no issues at all. I looked at the note 9 yesterday at best buy and can see any reason to update.

Reply

music_man185
08-19-2018 08:08 AM

“

I’m hoping the prices of the note 8 will be slashed even more when the note 9 is finally released.

Reply

What do you think? Is the Galaxy Note 8 still worth getting even though the Note 9 is here?

Join the conversation in the forums!

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Light up your home with two new collections from Philips Hue

The perfect lights.

Philips announced the new Signe and Play collections, which add indirect lighting to your entertainment space. The Signe Collection will feature a table light around 24 inches tall and a floor light around 59 inches tall. Both are designed to be pointed at a wall to give off indirect, ambient light that reaches up to the ceiling. They will have the full range of Philips’ White and Color Ambiance, similar to current starter kits, so you can choose between one of 16 million colors. The lights are only capable of one color at a time, but with multiple devices you can mix and match.

The Play Collection features a nine-inch bar that lays horizontally or vertically and creates light in a very similar way to Signe. These bars come with a base kit that you can plug the Play into, which helps reduce the electrical outlets you need according to Philips Hue.

Philips Hue has gotten into bias lighting in the past with light strips that can also be connected to your smart home, and both of these collections are designed so they can provide that same element for a TV when placed nearby. They can also be added to your smart home setup and be controlled using your voice with Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri. Philips Hue also has a redesigned app you’ll be able to use to control the new lights from your smartphone.

All of these lights will be available for pre-order in September and fully released in October. The Play single base kit will retail for $69.99, and the double base kit with two fixtures will go for $129.99. The Signe Table Light will set you back $159.99, and the Floor Light will cost $249.99. Of course, we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to find them on sale eventually so you should probably just follow us on Twitter and wait for the discounts to roll in.

Google’s working on a new Chromecast that has Bluetooth and better Wi-Fi

For better or worse, the design is staying exactly the same.

It’s been a hot minute (read, 3 years) since Google updated the Chromecast, but according to a new FCC listing, it would appear that a new model could be on its way in the near future.

According to the filing, this new Chromecast will be the first to support Bluetooth. The current model does have a Bluetooth chip, but it’s only used during the initial setup process and can’t be enabled by users afterward.

The FCC documents show that Google thought about just sending a software update to the exisitng Chromecast to enable this functionality, but “because this new model requires a new equipment code (DSS) not covered by the original certification for FCC ID A4RNC2-6A5, the new version of device requires a new FCC ID.”

Along with Bluetooth functionality, the new Chromecast will also offer improved Wi-Fi reception with 5GHz networks:

This device has been changed to include a 0.5 mm trim on the 5GHz PCB antenna trace that increases the 5GHz maximum antenna gain from 2.1 dBi to 4 dBi.

Google might announce the new Chromecast at its upcoming Pixel 3 event that’s expected to take place in early October, but seeing as how the design for the updated model will be identical to the current one, it’s entirely possible it’ll simply be sold in place of the existing Chromecast with no fanfare surrounding it.

Here’s why the NVIDIA Shield TV is still being updated after three years

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How to protect your Wi-Fi network from hackers

It’s your house and your network, filled with your stuff. Nobody wants some random intruder snooping around in it.

The digital information age is pretty awesome. I can find the answer to almost anything in just a few seconds, I can look at a screen small enough to carry in my pocket to know where to go and why I need to go there, and I can even make the lamp brighter by telling Alexa or Google to do it instead of reaching over to the fixture and swiping its tiny touch panel. A big part of the reason why, as well as why it’s only going to get even more awesome, is because everything is connected.

If you’re a network engineer you’ve got all this covered. The rest of us have to actually try.

For us, there is usually only one small part of that connection we need to worry about — the last 20 meters or so. Once all those digital signals make their way into our home they spread out over a Wi-Fi network that we control. The other gazillion meters of any connection have trained folks who are very good at keeping it all private and secure working to do just that, but that last 20 depends on us making the right decisions. If we don’t, the consequences can range from the embarrassing to the criminal — if it happens on our network, we’re the ones with our feet at the fire when judges and lawyers and Sony get worked up about the things that have passed through it.

That means it’s important to keep hackers out of your Wi-Fi network. It’s incredibly simple to get into about half of the Wi-Fi networks in any given town. Drive around and wait for a $12 gadget to blink green, pull over somewhere safe and start scanning and typing the right things in the right places and you are in. Any of us are fully capable of using the simple tools and a few online resources to break into a poorly secured Wi-Fi network. Here are a few easy things you can (and should) do to make sure yours isn’t.

The username and password

If I wanted to get inside a secured Wi-Fi network the first thing I would do is try to determine what hardware is there and acting as a router. With WPA2 being compromised, it’s fairly easy to crunch enough numbers to crack a Wi-Fi password (WPA3 mostly fixes that) and once I’m connected there’s a 50-50 chance that the router still uses the default username and password for its admin utility. The number of Linksys routers in use that the word admin can grant you access to their setup is staggering. Seriously.

Don’t make things easier than they already are.

Once I have control over the things like open ports and it’s set up for me to get in anytime I like without being in Wi-Fi range, I’d turn off any automatic update feature and change the login details so another jerk can’t screw around in there. If a user didn’t bother to change the default login, they’ll never know that they can reset the router to undo everything I did or that I even did anything.

I’m not some sort of hacker-dood. You don’t need to be a hacker to do exactly what I described to a router that still has the default admin credentials. Your smartphone, a laptop, and a couple of free utilities make it easy as pie.

If you haven’t already done so, grab the manual that came with your router or Google its model to read it online and see how to reset the router, reconnect it to your modem, and then change the admin password. While you’re at it, change the Wi-Fi password, too. then put everything into your favorite password manager because you’ll never remember all those random passwords.

Change the default SSID

SSID stands for Service Set Identifier but we know it better as the Wi-Fi network name. When you set up your Wi-Fi router it prompted you to create a network name and a password, but the network name was probably already filled in with the default. Like the admin credentials, a whole lot of people just left it that way.

Even an SSID named “Mom click this for internet” is better than XFINITYWIFI.

Changing the default name from something like Linksys doesn’t make your network more secure or do anything to thwart bandwidth piggybackers (unless you name your SSID something like “c:WinSystem32cmd-virus.bat” which will scare a lot of people away) but it does stop advertising what hardware you’re using. That’s easy to figure out another way but it means that utilities that search for specific brands using the SSID aren’t going to work. Doing anything to make a hacker single you out instead of advertising to him or her is a good thing.

Use a good password for everything

Just a few years ago something like SeaToShiningSea22$ would have been a great password. It’s easy to remember but complex enough that it’s not going to be in any password cracking dictionary and using any brute force methods to crack it would have taken months or years of computing time. Those days are gone.

You need a password of reasonable length that includes upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. They all need to be in some random order that doesn’t mean anything to even you, and if you can you’ll even want to use spaces. Computer processors have come a long way and billions of clock cycles no longer take months or years, they take hours and days. Don’t be that unlucky person who gets their network password cracked in just an hour and make it hard as hell by adding complexity.

Reasonable means different things to different encryption schemes. Generally, 8 to 10 characters are pretty good and 15 is even better because we are only interested in making the password more complex so a tool that tries to crack it needs more time. You don’t need to write some sort of random character novella, just use a password generator that comes with your password manager. It’s better at this stuff than we are.

Beware of MAC filtering and firewall settings

Using these tools to keep access to your Wi-Fi a bit more controlled can be tempting, but if you’re not sure what you’re doing you probably shouldn’t. Take some time to read and understand what things are, what they can do, and how it all works together, first. A fun way to play around is to set up a second Wi-Fi router on your Wi-Fi to play around with — just be sure to unplug it when you’re not playing until you’re sure you can keep it from being exposed to traffic outside your own network.

Sometimes fixing things makes them more broken — be sure you know what you’re doing in these settings.

MAC (Media Access Control) address filtering uses a device’s “unique” network signature to build a list of which devices are allowed to access any router. It’s not a failsafe way to keep anyone out because a MAC address can be faked but it’s another way to make sure it’s not easier to break in than it needs to be. You can find a devices MAC address through its own network interface (Google instructions for the device) or through a router’s control panel, and you whitelist the devices you want to let in and blacklist everything else. Know that MAC addresses aren’t necessarily unique or permanent — they can be changed. And anytime you connect something new you’ll need to add it to the whitelist.

Firewall settings on most consumer routers aren’t very comprehensive, but you will usually find settings for port forwarding and domain blocking. Both can be great tools as long as you know how to allow the right ports to connect to the outside world and how (and why) to block a domain.

I monkey around with these settings because I almost remember everything I learned about them during some software administration certification classes (if you’re the head of a Fortune 500 company who wants to spend a lot of money and you still use RHEL 9 on your servers, call me). They’re worth learning more about if you’re curious or if you live next door to a house filled with CS students who will try to monkey inside your Wi-Fi just to see if they can. They will, and someone in the comments will verify that (don’t make me look bad my computing scientist friends).

If you just have no desire to learn about this sort of thing — and none of us here will blame you — it’s better not to touch any of these settings.

Make sure you have a good router

This is the easiest and most important item on our list. You want a router that can put good Wi-Fi everywhere you need it, is dependable, and updates regularly and automatically. Full stop — if your router doesn’t do all three of these things you should look into replacing it.

Google Wifi is easy. I like easy and recommend easy whenever i can.

Nobody likes to spend money if they don’t need to do it, but having dependable and secure equipment powering your Wi-Fi network really is more important than any of the things we can do to help keep it safe. Every piece of hardware connected to the internet is exploitable. Every Wi-Fi network is hackable. It’s crazy to not do everything you can to patch exploits and make it more difficult for hackers. Timely and automatic updates are a lifesaver here — a system that emails you and lets you know there is an update that needs to be applied to your router’s firmware is also acceptable if you’re the kind of person who hates automatic anything — because you don’t have to worry about looking for an update and applying it yourself.

A reliable and strong network is also important because it takes away the temptation to do something like adding more equipment that you need to secure — repeaters and APs can be exploited, too. Thankfully, there are plenty of routers to are strong, reliable and automatically updated on time whenever it’s needed. They’re all pretty good, too, and your favorite brand (do people have a favorite brand of router?) likely makes one. As most of us here are Android users and have already sold our life’s information to Google in exchange for its great services, I’d recommend Google Wifi as a great option for most folks. But Netgear, Linksys, ASUS and names you might not know like Eero and Amplifi make great stuff, too.

More: Google Wifi vs. Orbi vs. Eero vs. AmpliFi: Wireless Mesh Network Face-off

An unsecured network is better than a poorly secured network. You won’t have a false sense of security that way, and you can tell a judge that lots of people use your Wi-Fi and it wasn’t you who downloaded that pirated music, and he or she might buy it. But the best thing to do is try and make things as secure as you can.

Stay safe, Y’all.

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Chromecast Ultra: all you need to know
• Which Chromecast should you buy?

Google Wifi: Google
Amazon
Google Home: Google
Best Buy
Chromecast Ultra: Google
Best Buy