Published Oct 23, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT

Bryan Wolfe has spent 15+ years writing about the tech people actually use — and occasionally the tech they probably shouldn't. With bylines at Yahoo, MakeUseOf, TechRadar, and Digital Trends, he brings an MBA-sharpened perspective to consumer tech, AI tools, and digital productivity. He's based in State College, PA, where he also runs GoingSolo.Life, a solo travel brand for the independently minded.

I was five episodes into the mesmerizing East of Eden when the picture went soft and then froze on a spinning red circle. It happened during a huge scene when the two main characters met to confront each other after many years apart. My first instinct was the same as most people's. I reached for the router's power cord and started drafting an angry call to my internet provider in my head.

Then I realized Netflix had already built a way to settle this.…