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Why is my Wi-Fi slow?
Buffering at eight, a dead back bedroom, one laptop that crawls. Those are different problems, and the checks that tell them apart cost nothing.
Joel Folgner
IT Manager, consultant, and tech curator based in Molalla, Oregon. I’m Joel Folgner, and I created Fresh From Cache to distill the noise of the tech industry into clear, practical insights.
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What laptop specs actually matter in 2026?
A laptop price tag is covered in letters and numbers that were put there to sell you. Four of them decide whether you still like the machine in five years, and the one that matters most is often not printed at all.
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This week: ink with an off switch, and who trains on your posts
Also in this issue: who else can see your child's GPS watch, a safety warning that owes you nothing, and the free service that emails you pictures of your mail.
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The GTA VI leak. How big leaks become bait.
Take-Two is pulling the CyberLeek clips as fast as they go up. The "archives" filling the gap are malware, and the pattern is older than this game.
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Who is behind your child's GPS watch?
Consumer Reports found kids GPS trackers that skip the second login step, and the cheapest watches run on shared platforms the buyer cannot name. Here is how to check the one on your child's wrist.
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The post office already photographs your mail. It will send you the pictures.
USPS will email you a photo of the letters coming to your house that day, for free. Most eligible addresses have never turned it on.
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Can you stop AI companies from training on what you write?
The opt-out settings are real, they only work going forward, and they only bind companies that choose to honor them. What each one actually does, and the one place you have real power.
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Also this week: an Apple alert, a Comcast deadline, and a teen account nobody asked for
Apple warned the people it thinks are spyware targets and shipped an update the rest of us should install, the Comcast breach claim deadline moved to September 14, ChatGPT started sorting its own users by age, and four states put Meta on trial in Oakland.
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What is a CPSC product safety warning?
A second kind of safety notice has grown to a fifth of the total, and it comes with no refund. Here is what to check before you buy a charger, a power strip, or a power bank.
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What you own when your printer is on a subscription
Cancel the subscription and the cartridge stops working, ink and all. HP writes it down, and so do Brother, Canon and Epson. What the contracts say, and how to leave without a dead printer.
newsletter
This week: $68 million from Google, and free antivirus
Also in this issue: the hearing test hiding in your earbuds, a colon cancer test company breached, and what the passkey headlines got wrong.
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Google is paying $68 million over Assistant recordings. Claims close 8/27.
The $18 to $56 estimate assumes almost nobody files. What the claim form actually asks for, which class needs a receipt, and why your Nest speaker is fine.