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**How to Complete Your First 5K with Assistance from Your Apple Watch**

As the year 2025 draws to a close, it’s an ideal moment to contemplate your personal aspirations and initiate new habits for the coming year. If running a 5K is part of your plans for 2026, your Apple Watch can serve as an essential ally in reaching this objective. Whether you possess the latest Apple Watch Series 11, the Apple Watch Ultra 3, or an earlier version, the smartwatch includes features that can aid you in preparing for and finishing your first 5K run.

One of the prominent benefits for new Apple Watch users is the complimentary trial of Apple Fitness+, Apple’s premium fitness service. This service encompasses Time to Walk and Time to Run experiences, which are fantastic ways to get fit for your first 5K.

**Time to Run: An Essential Motivation Tool**

In the Workouts app on your Apple Watch, you can explore Apple Fitness+ programs. The Time to Walk program provides a gentle introduction, allowing you to enjoy walks with renowned personalities like Malala Yousafzai and Prince William. As you stroll, they narrate personal anecdotes, interests, and even share images on your Apple Watch, providing inspiration to get active.

Once you feel inspired by Time to Walk, shift to the Time to Run option. This program allows you to run alongside Apple Fitness+ coaches through famous cities around the globe. A popular episode features a run in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the coach guides you through iconic beaches such as Leblon, Copacabana, and Ipanema. The program leads you through intervals of effort and rest, incorporating time to warm up and cool down, delivering an immersive experience in the city where the coach is located.

To monitor your progress and ensure you’re exercising safely, consider utilizing the Gentler Streak app. It gives you feedback on your effort levels, assisting you in staying within your comfort zone. If running a 5K is among your New Year’s goals, grab your Apple Watch and commence training today.

established an effective mesh network or set up a Wi-Fi range extender, your router might be the culprit behind your dropping network connectivity. Generally, unless your residence is compact, a router is unable to cover all sections of your home simultaneously.

It’s important to take into account not just the dimensions of your home, but also the items within it and the nearby walls. Wi-Fi signals emitted from your router could be easily hindered based on your home’s configuration. Rather than purchasing a superior router to enhance signal strength, pinpoint the areas with weak signals in your home, and this will aid in boosting coverage. Adjusting a poorly positioned router could be the ideal solution to stabilizing your connection, and it is also one of the simplest actions to take.

massive data leak revealed by Cybernews that involved the exposure of 16 billion logins. Thankfully, iOS has a built-in feature designed to help safeguard your credentials. This feature is the iOS Passwords app, a complimentary and quite efficient password manager that you can utilize not only on your iPhone but also across other Apple devices like an iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro.

The Passwords app made its debut with iOS 18 and comes loaded with numerous features that have been part of iOS for a long time, often concealed within settings. One notable feature, termed Security Recommendations, indicates which of your stored passwords have been compromised in a data breach and reused across multiple accounts. It can also highlight weak passwords. This functionality is notably convenient and useful, as it allows you to identify precisely which of your account credentials are vulnerable, enabling you to take action by modifying those passwords and potentially safeguarding your accounts from cybercriminals. Here’s how to access Security Recommendations for your passwords.

Google Pixel 10 is an outstanding smartphone, yet the wiser choice would be to opt for an alternative, specifically the prior-generation Google Pixel 9a. It remains a relevant phone, equipped with the identical primary rear and ultra-wide cameras, and provides access to AI functionalities. Admittedly, it falls short in other aspects, such as materials, processing power, RAM, and charging speeds. However, for typical users, it is probably more than sufficient.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to view the first segment of the three-part concluding season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” or perhaps you’re considering re-watching it in preparation for the release of season 5, volume 2 on December 25, 2025, then it’s essential to pay attention to some TV settings tweaks shared by Ross Duffer of the Duffer Brothers and the series creator. Even if you’ve already seen part one, modifying these settings will enhance your viewing experience as you gear up for parts two and three.

Duffer shared what he describes as a PSA on his Instagram profile, recommending common TV settings he suggests disabling. He points out that these settings will adversely affect your viewing pleasure and present scenes in a way that deviates from the filmmakers’ intentions (because indeed, the episodes resemble miniature films!). Included among these is TruMotion or motion smoothing, which results in the dreaded soap-opera effect, along with various picture settings related to resolution, contrast, and color filtering. Additionally, he highlights other picture options he advises fans to steer clear of, like noise reduction. By eliminating these “garbage” TV settings, as Duffer labels them, you’ll experience a more authentic cinematic sensation throughout the episodes.

Turn off motion smoothing

Among the “worst offenders,” as Duffer categorizes it, is TruMotion, frequently referred to as motion smoothing. This feature produces what is commonly known as the soap opera effect, rendering motion unnaturally smooth and lifelike. It’s termed so because the visuals tend to resemble cheesy soap operas rather than a gritty cinematic series.

Although the motion smoothing feature can be advantageous for content such as soap operas and reality television, as it artificially elevates the frame rate for ultra-smooth motion and hyperrealism, it may also reduce blur in sports and gaming. Some viewers appreciate this feature for specific content, while others abhor it entirely. Regardless, for a series like “Stranger Things,” it can make scenes—especially during quick camera pans—appear quite odd. If the TV includes a separate setting for blur reduction, it may be beneficial to keep that enabled. However, if the display offers a refresh rate of at least 120Hz, it should adequately manage motion blur without these extra enhancements.

Vivid mode is a significant no

Duffer mentions a setting known as Vivid Mode available on his LG TV but cautions against activating this mode or anything similar on other TVs. “It’s going to activate all the worst offenders,” he states in the Instagram video, “it’s going to ruin the color and is not what the filmmakers intended.”

This mode, which might also be referred to as dynamic mode, is designed to enhance brightness, contrast, and color saturation. While this may work well for animated films or cooking shows and nature documentaries, for “Stranger Things,” it detracts from the foreboding, dark ambiance of the Upside Down, alongside other scenes meant to be subdued rather than bright and vivid. The result could yield unnatural, harsh, and oversaturated visuals. Although Duffer doesn’t explicitly recommend it, if the TV has a Cinema, Movie, or Filmmaker Mode and you prefer a single-touch preset, these options are more suitable.

Noise reduction isn’t necessary

Another feature Duffer insists fans should disable is noise reduction. Noise refers to the black and white speckles you may notice on the screen, which isn’t typically a significant problem with the high-quality content available today. Noticeable noise might only appear if a TV is upconverting signals from a lower-quality source, such as an old DVD or an over-the-air signal. However, this is not applicable for Netflix and this series, unless you’re using an extremely outdated TV that may lack this picture setting.

Given that the digital source is already clear, ensure this mode is turned off. It can obscure details and finer textures, which are vital in many scenes of “Stranger Things.” Whether it’s Vecna’s chilling costume or the details of the demogorgons as they unfurl their heads to showcase the frightening intricacies of their mouth-like openings, it’s essential to capture every nuance. The last thing you want while watching a show like this is a softer picture, so avoid this mode when viewing on top-tier smart TVs.

Other picture mode settings to evade

Duffer points out several additional settings to disable, including dynamic contrast, super resolution, edge enhancement, and color filter. Dynamic contrast aims to adjust brightness in scenes to enhance vibrancy, but it can also result in artifacts and lost detail in bright or dark scenes, the latter being especially critical for “Stranger Things.” Super resolution utilizes AI to upscale lower-resolution content for fitting onto a higher-resolution display. But as

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