internet connection
We found a way to secure our internet connection for just 21 a year
Trending Now Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series Keep hackers away from your data with this VPN deal. The following content is brought to you by Mashable partners. If you buy a product featured here, we may earn an affiliate commission or other compensation. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. Free Wi-Fi is convenient until you start thinking about what you're sending across that connection.
How do translation earbuds actually work?
Using the mics, translation earbuds pick up the speaker's voice. High-end translation earbuds use different solutions to separate a voice from background noise. For example, the Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro uses eight microphones, two bone conduction sensors and a specialized AI model to separate voices. Some others use dual or beamforming mics to achieve similar results. After the voice is captured, the next step is audio processing.
Windows 11 update breaks Microsoft app logins. Try this workaround
PCWorld reports that Windows 11's March update KB5079473 is causing login failures across Microsoft apps including Teams, OneDrive, Xbox app, and Microsoft Store. Users encounter "You'll need the Internet for this" errors or code 0x800704cf despite having active internet connections after the problematic update. Microsoft recommends restarting your PC while connected to the internet as a temporary workaround, with an official patch expected soon. Ever since Windows 11's big March update, users have reported login issues with certain apps. At the very least, apps that require a Microsoft account are affected, including Teams, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Copilot, the Xbox app, and the Microsoft Store.
Why the world's militaries are scrambling to create their own Starlink
Why the world's militaries are scrambling to create their own Starlink The reliable internet connections provided by Starlink offer a huge advantage on the battlefield. Starlink's satellite constellation provides a reliable internet connection to almost anywhere on Earth, conferring an advantage on the modern battlefield. But it is also run by controversial billionaire Elon Musk, presenting a risk to militaries that could easily find themselves cut off. So, now countries are racing to build their own version. The Starlink network consists of almost 10,000 satellites that offer internet connections across most of the planet via small dishes on the ground.
How to get real-time translations on your phone
Mobile translation apps have improved substantially in recent years--with a little help on speech recognition from AI. Most apps can now keep up with real-time conversations, if your phone has a strong enough internet connection (so the audio can be processed and converted in the cloud). It means if you're trying to hold a conversation with someone in a language you don't know, you no longer need to spend time typing out words and phrases, or trying to figure out spellings and pronunciations. Instead, simply place your phone between you and the other person, and start chatting. There are several apps that can do this for you, but here we'll focus on the free translation apps on your Pixel phone, Galaxy phone, or iPhone.
Nintendo's digital Switch game sharing plan could be so much simpler
In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern. Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another.
The Nintendo Switch revolutionised on-the-go gaming – can the PlayStation Portal do the same?
Happy Monster Hunter Wilds week to all who celebrate: Capcom's thrilling action game has sold 8m units in three days, which means that quite a lot of you are likely to be playing it. I'm a huge fan of this series and am delighted by the latest entry, but after filing the review last week, I've barely had a minute to play it since it came out. Regular readers will know that this is a familiar problem for me: I have two kids, so my gaming time is tight, and the living room TV is very often in use. I anticipated this, so in the run-up to Monster Hunter Wilds' release, I spent 200 on a PlayStation Portal – essentially a screen sandwiched between two halves of a PlayStation 5 controller. I can't decide whether it's one of the most unwieldy things that Sony has ever come out with, or one of the most elegant.
Best of CES 2025: The smart home & home security gear we loved
It's been another banner year for home security and smart home at CES, and after scouring the show floor, we've rounded up the smart products that stood apart from the rest. Among our picks: a video doorbell and a smart deadbolt with their own screens (about time), a Matter-enabled smart lamp that can control other Matter devices without an internet connection, a smart pet door that opens when your pets approach from either side, and a smart toothbrush that promises to scour your teeth and gums in 20 seconds flat. Wouldn't it be nice to see who was at your doorstep without fishing out your smartphone--or, you know, opening the door? You can with help from the SwitchBot Video Doorbell, a wired- or battery-powered unit that comes with its own 4 x 3 display, which you can mount in the kitchen, your living room, or even right next to the front door. The display can be outfitted with 512GB of local storage--meaning no need for the cloud--while the doorbell itself supports 4K video and offers a 165-degree field of view.