If you choose to get an extra controller for your Nintendo Switch 2, you can spend a lot — and get a lot in return. Buying Nintendo’s own $89 Switch 2 Pro Controller, for instance, will net you the console’s only wireless controller with a 3.5mm headphone jack for private listening, not to mention great-feeling rumble and a slick design. It’s not perfect, but it’s otherwise the total package in terms of features.

But it’d be a disservice to you to call it a day there. There are several third-party models that are cheaper, yet don’t make too many compromises in terms of features. In fact, there’s now an affordable option that replicates the Switch 2 Pro’s OS-level rear button customization on a per-game basis, which was previously exclusive to Nintendo’s first-party gamepad. I’ve spent time testing a handful of these gamepads, including new ones as they release, and there’s a small batch of models that I think will satisfy most people, with a range of styles, prices, and features.

Every controller I’ve included in this guide is compatible with both the Switch 2 and the original Switch (all of them can remotely wake the Switch 2), as well as PC. Each offering also includes better, longer-lasting joystick technology than you’ll get with Nintendo’s flagship controller; the Switch 2 Pro Controller’s potentiometer-based joysticks are prone to degradation over time, after all, but our picks include either Hall effect or TMR joysticks. I’ve highlighted any controller-specific perks in the blurbs below.

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The best Switch 2 controller for most people

EasySMX S10

Score: 8ProsCons

• TMR joysticks
• amiibo support
• Great rumble

• Clicky buttons are divisive

Where to Buy:

• $59.99 $47.99 at Amazon (black)
• $59.99 at EasySMX
• $59.99 $45.59 at Amazon (white/blue)

Supported platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Steam Deck, mobile / Connectivity: Bluetooth, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Yes, two / App customization: No / Rumble: Yes, HD / NFC: Yes / Motion: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable 1,200mAh battery / Console wake-up: Yes / Native Switch 2 OS support: No

The EasySMX S10 is nearly as capable and comfortable as the Switch 2 Pro Controller, yet it’s $30 cheaper at $59.99. It’s full of surprises, too, including the best adaptation of Nintendo’s HD rumble that I’ve felt in a third-party controller. It’s also one of the few options that can remotely wake the Switch 2 from sleep mode via Bluetooth. Lastly, it includes amiibo support — another rare feature to find in a third-party gamepad.

However, the S10 isn’t a Switch 2 Pro copycat; it’s a lot grippier, both around the grips themselves and on its stick caps. Button presses and trigger pulls feel different from most other controllers, too, yielding a softer press and shorter travel, which is likely to be the most divisive aspect of the S10. One of my favorite aspects of the S10’s design is its swappable eight-way (circular) D-pad, making diagonal attacks in Hollow Knight: Silksong considerably easier to execute than with a four-way D-pad.

If I could change one thing about the S10, it’d be the system-level buttons (screenshot, GameChat, and home). They’re crammed awkwardly just below the D-pad and right stick.

Honorable mentions

EasySMX S10 Lite

Score: 7ProsCons

• Native Switch 2 software support
• Just as comfy as the EasyMax S10
• Affordable price point

• No amiibo support
• No HD rumble

Where to Buy:

• $39.99 $34 at EasySMX (code VergeS10lite)
• $39.99 at Walmart

Supported platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Steam Deck, mobile / Connectivity: Bluetooth, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Yes, two / App customization: No / Rumble: Yes / NFC: No / Motion: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable 1,000mAh battery / Console wake-up: Yes / Native Switch 2 OS support: Yes

While virtually identical to the S10 above, the S10 Lite makes a few compromises to reach its lower $39.99 price point. Most notably, it lacks support for amiibo figures, and its rumble effects are a clear downgrade compared to the HD rumble in the S10. What is unusual, however, is that EasySMX’s budget-friendly gamepad offers a feature I wish were in the step-up version: native support for the Switch 2.

Connecting the S10 Lite to a Switch 2 is as easy as connecting other controllers. But what’s unique is that it doesn’t require a strange sequence of button presses or Joy-Con removal for your console to remember it, which is not the case with the S10 and other gamepads. If you connect it once, you can wake the Switch 2 by pressing its Home button. What’s more, you can customize the two rear buttons on a per-game basis using the Switch 2’s interface, making it the only third-party controller that can utilize the OS to map commands to rear buttons.

At its core, the S10 Lite is an affordable controller that works like the Switch 2 Pro controller in ways that other manufacturers haven’t figured out yet. That’s great, and I love that its grips and overall shape make it just as comfortable to use as a Switch 2 Pro controller. But what it sacrificed (amiibo support, HD rumble) holds it back from being the very best option available.

Read my EasySMX S10 Lite hands-on.

GuliKit TT Pro

Score: 7ProsCons

• Adjustable tension TMR thumbsticks
• Quiet, floating D-pad

• Rumble falls behind cheaper models

Where to Buy:

• $70.58 $59.99 at Amazon (TT Pro)
• $82.34 $69.98 at Amazon (TT Max)

Supported platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, mobile / Connectivity: Bluetooth, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Yes, four / App customization: Coming in 2026 sometime / Rumble: Yes / NFC: No / Motion: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable battery, 950mAh / Console wake-up: Yes / Native Switch 2 OS support: No

GuliKit’s newer TT Pro is focused on cramming in more features while keeping the price reasonable. This wireless gamepad features TMR thumbsticks in a PlayStation-style stick layout. And notably, both sticks have adjustable tension (like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller) via a Phillips head screw that’s revealed once you pop off the stick caps. A tool is included that lets you dial in the sticks to be fast and flighty or have them resist snapping back to their original resting place. It’s great to see in a controller that costs well under $100.

The TT Pro has the best floating, eight-way directional pad I’ve used. I play games in the living room while my wife reads, and she can’t hear its quiet yet tactile clicks, even as I’m having a frantic battle in Hollow Knight: Silksong. Like the KingKong 3 Max, the TT Pro features adjustable trigger stops (full Hall effect analog pull or tactile click), and you can install up to four rear paddles to map buttons to. Other niceties include extra face buttons and a tool to remove them in the box (in case you want an Xbox-style face button layout while connected to a PC). It comes in a hard case with a Hyperlink Gen 2 wireless controller adapter, which makes it easier to connect the TT Pro (and myriad other controllers) to your Switch 2.

As for how the TT Pro differs from the step-up TT Max, here are the highlights: The Pro doesn’t include extra stick caps of varying heights, nor can its firmware switch between emulating a four- or eight-way D-pad like the Max can (the Pro only supports eight-way).

Mobapad Chitu2 HD

Score: 7ProsCons

• Comfy and compact
• Silent sticks and buttons
• Good feature set for $50

• Loud shoulder buttons
• System-level buttons are tough to feel for

Where to Buy:

• $71.41 $49.99 at Mobapad
• $71.41 $49.99 at Aknes
• $71.41 $49.99 at Amazon

Supported platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, mobile / Connectivity: Bluetooth, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Yes, two / App customization: Yes / Rumble: Yes, HD / NFC: Yes / Motion: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable battery, 1,000mAh / Console wake-up: Yes / Native Switch 2 OS support: No

It’s clear that Mobapad’s primary goal with its $71 Chitu2 HD was to convince people they were using Nintendo’s Switch 2 Pro Controller in a blind test. It crushed that goal. The curves feel identical to Nintendo’s $90 gamepad, as do the soft clicks of the customizable GL and GR rear buttons. The rumble is great, too, and its TMR sticks are nearly silent even when I deliberately try to wiggle them chaotically. It’s great to have a controller that feels so similar yet doesn’t skimp on features.

Build quality is stellar, with the pink color option being particularly nice. As with its whisper-quiet TMR sticks, most of the Chitu2’s other buttons and triggers don’t yield a clacky sound. However, there are some small issues that may not bother you: its floating directional pad is a little louder and mushier than the one GuliKit uses in the TT Pro, and its pair of L and R bumpers are louder to press than the clicking of the analog sticks. Another button-related issue is that the home and screenshot buttons sit nearly flush with the plastic housing, making them tough to feel for without looking.

8BitDo Pro 3 Bluetooth Gamepad

Score: 7ProsCons

• Includes dock and 2.4GHz dongle
• Highly customizable
• Comfortable for small hands

• Bad rumble

Where to Buy:

• $69.99 $62.99 at Amazon (at checkout)
• $69.99 at 8BitDo
• $69.99 at Macy’s

Supported platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Steam Deck, mobile / Connectivity: Bluetooth, 2.4GHz, wired / Connector type: USB-C / Mappable rear buttons: Yes, two / App customization: Yes / Rumble: Yes / NFC: No / Motion: Yes / Power: Built-in rechargeable 1,000mAh battery / Console wake-up: Yes / Native Switch 2 OS support: No

8BitDo’s Pro 3 is a great yet pricey Switch 2 Pro alternative with a PlayStation-style stick layout. At $69.99, it’s not as affordable (nor as value-packed) as the top contenders. However, the Pro 3 offers a lot of customization, some being cosmetic, while other aspects can impact gameplay.

It has a lot going for it, with TMR joysticks, two back paddles, and a total of three shoulder buttons per side thanks to new custom M buttons. Its analog stick caps can be popped off in favor of glossy arcade stick-style nubs, which were my preferred choice in fighting games (plus, they just look cool). Its ABXY buttons can be suctioned off with an included tool to swap the layout as needed, and for visual flair, each controller includes colored buttons to evoke a retro Nintendo console. Also, it has trigger locks, letting you set triggers to have a short, clicky pull or the default travel distance.

However, I’d skip the Pro 3 if you want good rumble feedback. It’s pretty lousy on that front, to the point that I preferred to turn off rumble entirely in games. If you’re considering the similarly priced Ultimate 2 Bluetooth, it also has poor rumble, but it’s a great controller otherwise that offers similar features with an Xbox-style stick layout.

Read my full 8BitDo Pro 3 review.

Update, March 10th: Adjusted pricing / availability and added the EasySMX S10 Lite. We also removed Gulikit ES Pro since other controllers in its price range offer more features.

A NASA satellite that spent more than a decade coursing through the Van Allen radiation belts encircling Earth is about to fall back into the atmosphere.

Most of the spacecraft will burn up during reentry, but a fraction of the material making up the 1,323-pound (600-kilogram) satellite will likely reach Earth's surface without vaporizing in the atmosphere. Uncontrolled reentries of satellites with comparable mass happen quite regularly—multiple times per month, according to one recent study—but most of them are older spacecraft or spent rocket bodies.

This reentry is notable because it poses a higher risk to the public than the US government typically allows. The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is still low, approximately 1 in 4,200, but it exceeds the government standard of a 1 in 10,000 chance of an uncontrolled reentry causing a casualty.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: Worried that your latest ask to a cloud-based AI reveals a bit too much about you? Want to know your genetic risk of disease without revealing it to the services that compute the answer? There is a way to do computing on encrypted data without ever having it decrypted. It's called fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE. But there's a rather large catch. It can take thousands -- even tens of thousands -- of times longer to compute on today's CPUs and GPUs than simply working with the decrypted data. So universities, startups, and at least one processor giant have been working on specialized chips that could close that gap. Last month at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco, Intel demonstrated its answer, Heracles, which sped up FHE computing tasks as much as 5,000-fold compared to a top-of the-line Intel server CPU. Startups are racing to beat Intel and each other to commercialization. But Sanu Mathew, who leads security circuits research at Intel, believes the CPU giant has a big lead, because its chip can do more computing than any other FHE accelerator yet built. "Heracles is the first hardware that works at scale," he says. The scale is measurable both physically and in compute performance. While other FHE research chips have been in the range of 10 square millimeters or less, Heracles is about 20 times that size and is built using Intel's most advanced, 3-nanometer FinFET technology. And it's flanked inside a liquid-cooled package by two 24-gigabyte high-bandwidth memory chips—a configuration usually seen only in GPUs for training AI. In terms of scaling compute performance, Heracles showed muscle in live demonstrations at ISSCC. At its heart the demo was a simple private query to a secure server. It simulated a request by a voter to make sure that her ballot had been registered correctly. The state, in this case, has an encrypted database of voters and their votes. To maintain her privacy, the voter would not want to have her ballot information decrypted at any point; so using FHE, she encrypts her ID and vote and sends it to the government database. There, without decrypting it, the system determines if it is a match and returns an encrypted answer, which she then decrypts on her side. On an Intel Xeon server CPU, the process took 15 milliseconds. Heracles did it in 14 microseconds. While that difference isn't something a single human would notice, verifying 100 million voter ballots adds up to more than 17 days of CPU work versus a mere 23 minutes on Heracles.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A commercial ship is viewed anchored off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, in the Strait of Hormuz, Dubai, on March 2nd, 2026. Increased maritime traffic led to a buildup of vessels waiting near Dubai, highlighting the strategic importance of the strait, which handles 20 percent of global energy trade. | Photo: Getty Images

Soon after the Trump administration launched its war on Iran, I called up Reed Blakemore, director of research and programs at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center, to talk about the consequences. While oil and gas prices were already on the rise, there was still more hope then that the impact of the conflict might be short-lived. At the end of our conversation, Blakemore said plainly: "Let's have a call again [next week] ... We'll have a much clearer picture of what the conflict is going to look like and what the story really is going to be for energy moving forward."

Energy infrastructure has become a key leverage point in the unfold ...

Read the full story at The Verge.

In September, the Trump administration took what it called "bold actions" on autism that included touting the generic drug leucovorin as a promising treatment. In a news release, Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, claimed a "growing body of evidence suggests" the drug could be helpful. And at a White House press event, Makary suggested it might help "20, 40, 50 percent of kids with autism."

"Hundreds of thousands of kids, in my opinion, will benefit," he said at another point in the event.

The bold claims were apparently persuasive. A study published in The Lancet last week found that new outpatient prescriptions of leucovorin for children ages 5 to 17 shot up 71 percent in the three months after the Trump administration's actions.

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If you’ve ever reached into your dryer expecting to pull out a load of downy-soft laundry only to find a pile of stiff, starchy garments, there’s a good chance you’re using too much laundry detergent.

Obviously, laundry detergent gets dirt and stains out of your clothes. But if you use too much, you wind up creating a new mess. This is a result of detergent residue that doesn’t fully rinse out, and it can turn your previously soft wardrobe into a crunchy, scratchy, uncomfortable-to-wear load of clothes.

The best liquid detergent

Tide Free & Gentle Liquid Laundry Detergent

This perfume- and dye-free liquid was the most well-rounded liquid detergent we tested, tackling a variety of stains and odors well.

$20 from Amazon
(132 ounces)$20 from The Home Depot
(132 ounces)

Too much detergent also creates a surplus of suds, which can prevent your garments from rubbing against one another (which helps release trapped dirt from your clothes), according to Tide’s website.

Though it seems counterintuitive, the more detergent you use past a certain point, the dirtier your clothes become.

How much laundry detergent should you actually use?

To effectively clean your clothes, you need to use only 2 tablespoons per load at most — and that’s for big loads weighing 12 pounds or more. In our guide to the best washing machines, we note that 1 tablespoon is enough to thoroughly clean an average load, which usually weighs around 8 pounds.

The amount of detergent you should add varies greatly among brands. The back of your bottle might even recommend that you use more than 2 tablespoons per load. But that doesn’t mean you should listen. “Most people aren’t washing truly dirty clothes, and the instructions are written as if they are,” says Wirecutter writer and laundry expert Andrea Barnes.

The effects can be even worse if you’re using high-efficiency (HE) detergent, which is made from high-concentration, low-sudsing formulas and can be used in both traditional and HE machines. In our guide, we explain that HE detergents are at least double the concentration of traditional detergents. On top of that, to clean your clothes, a high-efficiency washer uses a smaller amount of water than a traditional washing machine, so there’s even less water to dilute the detergent.

If you’re hand-washing, Andrea suggests starting with as little as half a teaspoon. You can rely on regular liquid laundry detergent, except if you’re washing delicate silk or wool by hand. She says in that case “you may want to consider one of our no-rinse detergent picks instead.”

Regardless, Andrea warns that you should wear gloves to protect your hands from harsh chemicals.

The best powder detergent

Tide Ultra Oxi Powder Laundry Detergent

This powerful powder dissolves swiftly and completely, eliminates many tough stains, and leaves a light scent. But it’s less effective on greasy stains than our liquid picks.

$20 from Amazon$20 from The Home Depot

Best for those who prefer pods

Tide Pods Ultra Oxi Free

These pods are convenient, strong cleaners, and they contain no added perfumes or dyes. But you cannot pretreat stains with them, and they contain petroleum-based polyvinyl alcohol (PVA/PVOH).

$20 from Amazon$20 from Walmart

Wirecutter now recommends powder and pod detergents in addition to liquid detergent — a departure from our longtime stance of recommending only liquid detergents. Be advised that while pre-portioned pods are convenient, you have less control over the amount of detergent used on your load. This can quickly lead to a buildup of the chemicals and cleaning agents that stiffen your laundry.

For powder detergent, Andrea recommends starting with 1 tablespoon for a small load and then adjusting as necessary for especially dirty or stained clothes. And for pods, you should only ever use one pod at a time, regardless of what the instructions say. We named Tide Pods Ultra Oxi Free our pod-detergent pick because it’s a strong cleaner, but also because it’s a smaller pod than most others we tested.

The best way to remove detergent buildup

Our experts don’t recommend laundry stripping (which involves soaking clothes in a mix of borax and washing soda, among other things), even though it’s popular on social media.

“If your clothing feels grimy, it might be tempting to laundry strip,” Andrea says. “Before you resort to this messy and laborious activity that may or may not improve the state of your clothes, you could try adding a laundry rinse.”

A laundry rinse is an acidic rinse, designed to rinse away buildups of detergent, which are alkaline. We don’t have an official pick yet, but we are in the middle of testing a variety of them. Vinegar could work for this purpose too, but in that case Andrea recommends adding an extra rinse to your cycle selections to rinse out the smell.

To prevent buildup from happening in the first place, Andrea suggests periodically cleaning your washing machine. She recommends using a citric-acid-based cleaner like Affresh. Andrea says it will “combat alkaline-detergent residue and keep your machine running and cleaning well, and leave your fabrics feeling fresher.”

Gabriella DePinho contributed reporting.

Was it a threat or a reality check? That's a key question in the government's anti-monopoly case against Live Nation, which is currently in limbo after the Justice Department reached a settlement with the company and as dozens of states push ahead.

The Verge obtained the audio of a 2021 call at the center of the case. The recording, a public exhibit that was played for jurors in the first week of trial, features then-CEO of Barclays Center John Abbamondi and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino arguing over a ticketing deal for Brooklyn's Barclays Center arena. A transcript of the call was previously posted to the docket, but the audio gives a be ...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Last November, Amazon sued Perplexity demanding that the AI search startup stop allowing its AI browser agent, Comet, to make purchases for users online. Today, a judge ruled in favor of the tech giant, granting it a temporary court injunction blocking the scraping of Amazon's website. According to court filings, the judge found strong evidence the tool accessed the retailer's systems "without authorization." CNBC reports: In a ruling dated Monday, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney wrote that Amazon has provided "strong evidence" that Perplexity's Comet browser accessed its website at the user's direction, but "without authorization" from the e-commerce giant. Chesney said Amazon submitted "essentially undisputed evidence" that it spent more than $5,000 to respond to the issue, including "numerous hours" where its employees worked to develop tools to block Comet from accessing its private customer tools and to prevent the tool from "future unauthorized access." "Given such evidence, the Court finds Amazon has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its claim," Chesney wrote. Chesney's ruling includes a weeklong stay to allow Perplexity to appeal the order. Amazon wrote in its original complaint that Perplexity's agents posed security risks to customer data because they "can act within protected computer systems, including private customer accounts requiring a password." The company also said Perplexity's agents created challenges for the company's advertising business, because when AI systems generate ad traffic, the impressions have to be detected and filtered out before advertisers can be billed. "This requires modifications to Amazon's advertising systems, including developing new detection mechanisms to identify and exclude automated traffic," Amazon wrote in its complaint. "These system adaptations are necessary to maintain contractual obligations with advertisers who pay only for legitimate human impressions."

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Though the live-action Cowboy Bebop was a big disappointment, Shinichirō Watanabe is ready to give it another go with one of his other iconic pieces of IP.

Variety reports that Watanabe has given his blessing and agreed to work on a new live-action Samurai Champloo adaptation from Tomorrow Studios, the same production house behind Netflix's Cowboy Bebop (which Watanabe wasn't directly involved in) and the streamer's surprisingly excellent take on One Piece. The project is in its earliest stages of development and is not attached to a distributor. After Cowboy Bebop, this all feels a little iffy, but Tomorrow Studios heads Marty Adelstein an ...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Anyone who finds themselves wishing they could spend less time on meal prep might have a solution in the form of the recently-launched Nosh One from Nosh Robotics, an AI kitchen appliance that can autonomously cook for you.

All users need to do is load their ingredients into the robot's tray then select a recipe. The Nosh One adds the ingredients into its pot at the appropriate time, stirs everything, uses AI to monitor the ingredients with a built-in camera, and completes the meal without needing any intervention along the way. Nosh's app notifies users when the meal is ready. They can also use the app to view and edit recipes and schedul ...

Read the full story at The Verge.

A federal judge has issued an order blocking Perplexity's web browser-based AI agents from placing Amazon orders on a user's behalf, as reported earlier by Bloomberg. In a ruling on Monday, US District Judge Maxine Chesney writes that Amazon has "provided strong evidence" that Perplexity's Comet browser accesses user accounts "without authorization" from the retail giant.

Amazon sued Perplexity in November, alleging that it "repeatedly requested" that the AI startup stop letting its agents buy products for customers. The company accused Perplexity of "intruding" into its marketplace and user accounts with Comet's agentic shopping feature, ...

Read the full story at The Verge.

sziring shares a report from Business Insider: Silicon Valley has long competed for talent with ever-richer pay packages built around salary, bonus, and equity. Now, a fourth line item is creeping into the mix: AI inference. As generative AI tools become embedded in software development, the cost of running the underlying models -- known as inference -- is emerging as a productivity driver and a budget line that finance chiefs can't ignore. Software engineers and AI researchers inside tech companies have already been jousting for access to GPUs, with this AI compute capacity being carefully parceled out based on which projects are most important. Now, some tech job candidates have begun asking about what AI compute budget they will have access to if they decide to join. "I am increasingly asked during candidate interviews how much dedicated inference compute they will have to build with Codex," Thibault Sottiaux, engineering lead at OpenAI's Codex, the startup's AI coding service, wrote on X recently. He added that usage per user is growing much faster than overall user growth, a sign that AI compute is becoming even scarcer and more valuable. That scarcity is reshaping how engineers think about their work and pay. "The inference compute available to you is increasingly going to drive overall software productivity," said OpenAI President Greg Brockman. The report cites a recent compensation submission from a software engineer that listed "Copilot subscription" as part of the pay and benefits. "OpenAI and Anthropic should create recruitment sites where their clients can advertise roles, listing the token budget for the job alongside the salary range," said Peter Gostev, AI capability lead at Arena, a startup that measures the performance of models. Tomasz Tunguz of Theory Ventures predicts AI inference will be the fourth component of engineering compensation, alongside salary, bonus, and equity. "Will you be paid in tokens? In 2026, you likely will start to be," Tunguz said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The signs of spring are here, if you look for them. Maybe you’re feeling the urge to air out the corners, reorganize, and generally freshen things up. But the season can also be overwhelming, with plenty of #CleanTok influencers suggesting that you need to turn your house upside down for a proper spring cleaning.

Knowing a bit about what you’re tackling (what even is dust, anyway?), what needs to be disinfected and what doesn’t, and how frequently you need to scour can help make the season feel like an actually doable reset.

Each of these questions is designed to clear up any confusion and set you up for success. And you’ll learn some simple steps that you can take to freshen up your home, for the spring and beyond.

AT&T plans to invest more than $250 billion over the next five years to expand U.S. telecom infrastructure for the AI age. The company says it will also hire thousands of technicians while partnering with AST SpaceMobile to extend coverage to remote areas. Reuters reports: Rapid adoption of artificial intelligence, cloud computing and connected devices has prompted telecom operators to invest heavily in fiber and 5G networks as they also seek to fend off intensifying competition from cable broadband providers. AT&T, which has about 110,000 employees in the U.S., said the new hires will help build and maintain its infrastructure. The outlay includes capital expenditure and other spending, the company said. The spending will focus on expanding its fiber and wireless networks, including accelerating deployment of fiber broadband, 5G home internet and satellite connectivity to extend coverage across urban, suburban and rural areas. [...] AT&T is also working with satellite partner AST SpaceMobile to expand connectivity to remote regions where traditional network infrastructure is difficult to deploy. The company said it would continue spending on the FirstNet network built for first responders and bolster investment in network security and artificial intelligence-driven threat detection.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Asus TUF Gaming A14 (FA401EA) is a gaming laptop that combines discrete-class graphics performance with portable design: the notebook measures just 0.78 inches thick (or 0.67 inches at its thinnest) and weighs just 3.26 pounds. First introduced during CES in January, the laptop features a 14 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel, 165 Hz display and […]

The post Asus TUF Gaming A14 laptop with Ryzen AI Max+ 392 now available for $2200 appeared first on Liliputing.

Computer engineers and programmers have long relied on reverse engineering as a way to copy the functionality of a computer program without copying that program's copyright-protected code directly. Now, AI coding tools are raising new issues with how that "clean room" rewrite process plays out both legally, ethically, and practically.

Those issues came to the forefront last week with the release of a new version of chardet, a popular open source python library for automatically detecting character encoding. The repository was originally written by coder Mark Pilgrim in 2006 and released under an LGPL license that placed strict limits on how it could be reused and redistributed.

Dan Blanchard took over maintenance of the repository in 2012 but waded into some controversy with the release of version 7.0 of chardet last week. Blanchard described that overhaul as "a ground-up, MIT-licensed rewrite" of the entire library built with the help of Claude Code to be "much faster and more accurate" than what came before.

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The Razer BlackShark V2 Pro is a lightweight gaming headset you can pair with multiple devices. | Image: Razer

If you’re looking for a reliable wireless gaming headset under $100, the Xbox version of the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro is worth a look. Right now, it’s down to a new low of $89.99 ($110 off) at Amazon in black and white.

Razer BlackShark V2 Pro Where to Buy:

• $199.99 $89.99 at Amazon (for Xbox)

Despite being designed for Xbox consoles, the esports-inspired headset can connect wirelessly to your PC, phone, tablet, Nintendo Switch 2, and other devices via Bluetooth or the included USB-C wireless dongle (with a USB-C–to–USB-A adapter), which allows for low-latency wireless audio while gaming. The headset additionally features large 50mm drivers designed to deliver clear sound, along with a detachable boom mic for chatting with your friends. Razer also includes a volume knob and mic mute button on the earcup, along with a SmartSwitch button that lets you switch audio profiles, making it easy to adjust settings while in the middle of a game.

Weighing less than a pound, the headset is fairly lightweight as well and adjustable, so it can fit a range of head sizes. It also uses breathable memory foam ear cushions that help block out background noises and make the headset comfortable to wear for a long period of time. Battery life is also great, with Razer claiming it can last up to 70 hours on a single charge, so you don’t have to worry about charging it every day. And when you do need to top it up, it charges relatively fast via USB-C.

Meta has acquired Moltbook, the Reddit-esque simulated social network made up of AI agents that went viral a few weeks ago. The company will hire Moltbook creator Matt Schlicht and his business partner, Ben Parr, to work within Meta Superintelligence Labs.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

As for what interested Meta about the work done on Moltbook, there is a clue in the statement issued to press by a Meta spokesperson, who flagged the Moltbook founders' "approach to connecting agents through an always-on directory," saying it "is a novel step in a rapidly developing space." They added, "We look forward to working together to bring innovative, secure agentic experiences to everyone."

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Thirty years ago, Nintendo struck gold with the release of the original Pokémon games. Soon, kids across the world were introduced to dozens of magical creatures that they could befriend and learn more about using sophisticated electronic encyclopedias known as Pokédexes. The first Pokédexes were reflections of how the Pokémon world was shaped by advanced technology. And with each subsequent generation, Pokédexes evolved; by 2019 they stopped being dedicated devices and became applications on phones powered by disembodied spirits. Rotom Phones could do more things than their predecessors, but many players have continued to think of the handh ...

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Since 1999, Slashdot has been covering the annual Ig Nobel prize ceremonies -- which honor real scientific research into strange or surprising subjects. "After 35 years in Boston, the annual prize ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, this year and will continue to be held in a European city for the foreseeable future," reports Ars Technica. "The reason: concerns about the safety of international travelers, who are increasingly reluctant to travel to the U.S. to participate." "During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country," Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of The Annals of Improbable Research magazine, told The Associated Press. "We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the U.S. this year." It comes on the heels of our recent story that many international game developers are opting to skip this year's weeklong Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, citing similar concerns. Ars Technica reports: Established in 1991, the Ig Nobels are a good-natured parody of the Nobel Prizes; they honor "achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think." As the motto implies, the research being honored might seem ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn't mean it's devoid of scientific merit. The unapologetically campy awards ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures, in which experts must explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds and again in just seven words. Traditionally, the awards ceremony and related Ig Nobel events have taken place in Boston at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University. However, four of last year's 10 winners opted to skip the ceremony rather than travel to the U.S., and the situation has not improved. [...] [T]his year, the Ig Nobel organizers are joining forces with the ETH Domain and the University of Zurich for hosting duties. "Switzerland has nurtured many unexpected good things -- Albert Einstein's physics, the world economy, and the cuckoo clock leap to mind -- and is again helping the world appreciate improbable people and ideas," Abraham said. The Ig Nobels will not be returning to the U.S. any time soon. Instead, the plan is for Zurich to host every second year; every odd-numbered year, the ceremony will be hosted by a different European city. Abraham likened the arrangement to the Eurovision Song Contest.

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Ford announced a new AI-powered service for its commercial fleet and telematics software customers called Ford Pro AI. The generative AI system analyzes data generated by commercial vehicles - including vehicle speed, seat belt activity, and engine health - and converts it into actionable items for fleet managers.

The new system manifests as - what else? - an AI chatbot within Ford's Telematics software that customers can ask questions about their fleets or delegate tasks. Managers can ask the chatbot for recommendations to lower fuel costs, insight about specific vehicles in their fleets, or even to draft emails to a supervisor summarizing ...

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The Ulefone RugOne Xnap 7 Pro is a rugged smartphone with a 6.67 inch, 120 Hz AMOLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 processor, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 9,000 mAh battery. But it’s most unusual feature is the camera system. While there’s a 50MP primary camera on the back of the phone, along […]

The post This rugged phone has a removable camera that works as a standalone action cam appeared first on Liliputing.

Google has spent the past few years in a constant state of AI escalation, rolling out new versions of its Gemini models and integrating that technology into every feature possible. To say this has been an annoyance for Google's userbase would be an understatement. Still, the AI-fueled evolution of Google products continues unabated—except for Google Photos. After waffling on how to handle changes to search in Photos, Google has relented and will add a simple toggle to bring back the classic search experience.

The rollout of the Gemini-powered Ask Photos search experience has not been smooth. According to Google Photos head Shimrit Ben-Yair, the company has heard the complaints. As a result, Google Photos will soon make it easy to go back to the traditional, non-Gemini search system.

If you weren't using Google Photos from the start, it can be hard to understand just how revolutionary the search experience was. We went from painstakingly scrolling through timelines to find photos to being able to just search for what was in them. This application of artificial intelligence predates the current obsession with generative systems, and that's why Google decided a few years ago it had to go.

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Anthropic sued the Trump administration yesterday in an attempt to reverse the government's decision to blacklist its technology. Anthropic argues that it exercised its First Amendment rights by refusing to let its Claude AI models be used for autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans and that the government blacklisted it in retaliation.

"When Anthropic held fast to its judgment that Claude cannot safely or reliably be used for autonomous lethal warfare and mass surveillance of Americans, the President directed every federal agency to 'IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic's technology'—even though the Department of War had previously agreed to those same conditions," Anthropic said in a lawsuit in US District Court for the Northern District of California. "Hours later, the Secretary of War [Pete Hegseth] directed his Department to designate Anthropic a 'Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,' and further directed that 'effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.'"

Anthropic said the First Amendment gives it "the right to express its views—both publicly and to the government—about the limitations of its own AI services and important issues of AI safety." Anthropic further argued that the process for designating it a supply chain risk did not comply with the procedures mandated by Congress. The supply chain risk designation is supposed to be used only to protect against risks that an adversary may sabotage systems used for national security, the lawsuit said.

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Just as supportive insoles can make all the difference when you go for a walk, a standing desk mat can be a game changer if you stand at work, even for brief periods.

A comfortable mat like the Ergodriven Topo supports your legs and back better than the floor will. And its varied terrain will keep you moving, which experts agree is crucial. This mat is easy to slide in and out of position, and seven years of testing have shown it’s built to last.

The Live Nation trial is not over yet. Several states look to be headed to trial on their own as soon as Monday unless they hash out a settlement in the next few days.

On Tuesday, a day after the Justice Department revealed in court it had reached a settlement with Live Nation that a handful of states had agreed to, Judge Arun Subramanian held a hearing on the future of the case. He ordered Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, DOJ Antitrust Division acting chief Omeed Assefi, and representatives of states that hadn't settled to stay at the Manhattan courthouse and attempt to reach a broader deal. Subramanian has not yet ruled on a mistrial motio ...

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OpenAI is reportedly backing away from expanding its AI data center partnership with Oracle because newer generations of Nvidia GPUs may arrive before the facility is even operational. CNBC reports: Artificial intelligence chips are getting upgraded more quickly than data centers can be built, a market reality that exposes a key risk to the AI trade and Oracle's debt-fueled expansion. OpenAI is no longer planning to expand its partnership with Oracle in Abilene, Texas, home to the Stargate data center, because it wants clusters with newer generations of Nvidia graphics processing units, according to a person familiar with the matter. The current Abilene site is expected to use Nvidia's Blackwell processors, and the power isn't projected to come online for a year. By then, OpenAI is hoping to have expanded access to Nvidia's next-generation chips in bigger clusters elsewhere, said the person, who asked not to be named due to confidentiality. In a post on X, Oracle called the reports "false and incorrect." However, it only said existing projects are on track and didn't address expansion plans. CNBC notes: "Oracle secured the site, ordered the hardware, and spent billions of dollars on construction and staff, with the expectation of going bigger."

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For the second time, Vinay Prasad is set to leave the Food and Drug Administration.

In a post on social media Friday, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced that Prasad will exit in April, adding that he got "a tremendous amount accomplished" during his year at the agency.

Prasad's tenure was generally marked by controversy, but he is departing amid a cluster of self-destructive decisions. Those include a shocking rejection of an mRNA vaccine (which was over the objections of agency scientists and quickly reversed); a demand for an additional clinical trial on a gene therapy for Huntington's disease, which was widely seen as moving the goalpost for the therapy; his startling choice to publicly attack the maker of that gene therapy, UniQure; and alleged abuse of FDA staff, who say he created a toxic work environment.

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Great everyday boots are switch-hitting problem-solvers: comfortable enough for pavement-pounding, polished enough for a nice dinner, and sturdy enough for imperfect weather. The very best boots fit like a glove, complement almost everything in your wardrobe, age beautifully, and last for years.

To find a selection of excellent boots, we considered a variety of casual styles that could work for different occasions and climates. (Although the pairs here are technically categorized as men’s styles, we think they’d work for anyone.) We didn’t test specific dress boots, but several of our picks are quite versatile, so they can be dressed up or even worn with a suit.

Since many boots take a while to break in before they’re really comfortable, every pair we recommend has endured what I call the “50,000-step rule.” In order to gauge how the boots would feel with some miles on them, I walked at least 50,000 steps in each pair (and in some cases many more).

Three other staffers, with different style sensibilities and various foot shapes and sizes, also tried a selection of the boots for real-world activities, including shoveling snow, going on dates, and dancing. Our testing coincided with one of the coldest, snowiest New York City winters of this century. And while these boots are intended for all kinds of seasons and conditions, due to the extreme weather, we really got to see what they’re made of.

Our picks include pared-down and spiffed-up chukkas; rugged, work-boot-inspired moc-toes (a budget-friendly option and a splurgier one); two chunky styles from an iconic brand; and all-weather Chelseas. We also have two next-level, handmade picks that can be re-crafted again and again; these pairs are investments in the truest sense and intended to last a lifetime.

NASA's inspector general released a new report on Tuesday that examines the space agency's management of the Human Landing System development contracts signed with SpaceX and Blue Origin.

These landers are essential for NASA's program to land humans on the Moon this decade and then establish a long-term settlement on the lunar surface. However, both NASA and the companies developing the landers have largely been silent about their efforts. For this reason the new report on Human Landing Systems (HLS) provides some interesting insights previously unknown to the public.

Overall, the report, signed by Office of Inspector General senior official Robert Steinau, finds that the fixed-price contracting approach has been beneficial for NASA as it seeks to broaden its utilization of the US commercial space industry.

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Due in part to human-driven climate change, as well as longtime suppression-first policies and urban sprawl, catastrophic wildfires have evolved from seasonal hazards to year-round disasters that cause air pollution, scorched earth, property loss, and death.

People who never thought they’d be at risk of a wildfire are now forced to consider air-quality hazards and even evacuation, oftentimes with little advance notice.

If you live in an area prone to wildfires — or somewhere that’s becoming one — we’ve gathered some essential tools and advice to help you prepare for future flames.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: AI can reverse engineer machine code and find vulnerabilities in ancient legacy architectures, says Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich, who used his own Apple II code from 40 years ago as an example. Russinovich wrote: "We are entering an era of automated, AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery that will be leveraged by both defenders and attackers." In May 1986, Russinovich wrote a utility called Enhancer for the Apple II personal computer. The utility, written in 6502 machine language, added the ability to use a variable or BASIC expression for the destination of a GOTO, GOSUB, or RESTORE command, whereas without modification Applesoft BASIC would only accept a line number. Russinovich had Claude Opus 4.6, released early last month, look over the code. It decompiled the machine language and found several security issues, including a case of "silent incorrect behavior" where, if the destination line was not found, the program would set the pointer to the following line or past the end of the program, instead of reporting an error. The fix would be to check the carry flag, which is set if the line is not found, and branch to an error. The existence of the vulnerability in Apple II type-in code has only amusement value, but the ability of AI to decompile embedded code and find vulnerabilities is a concern. "Billions of legacy microcontrollers exist globally, many likely running fragile or poorly audited firmware like this," said one comment to Russinovich's post.

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As prices rise and options overwhelm, it’s harder than ever to discern which laptop will serve your needs for the best price. Laptop companies are making big promises about the AI features in their new computers, and the end of support for Windows 10 has arrived. While you shouldn’t buy a new laptop just for AI, it’s time to consider an upgrade if you’re still using Windows 10.

After testing hundreds of laptops over the past decade and spending time with 43 thin-and-light models so far this year, we’ve found that the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 (14" Intel) is the best Windows laptop for most people.

After moving to a high fire-risk neighborhood in Los Angeles, Michael Capello realized he had a lot to learn about keeping himself and his property safe. So, in the fall of 2024, he joined the Community Brigade, an initiative with the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation that trains residents in the Santa Monica Mountains to support their neighbors before, during, and after disasters.

When the Palisades Fire sparked in the area months later, Capello and his fellow volunteers jumped into action, assisting with evacuations, dousing spot fires, and helping residents return home safely after the flames were out. While he was lucky this time, his home spared, the experience was a reminder that there is more he could do — and needs to do — to prepare his property for future fires.

“I’m endangering myself, my neighbor, his family, and the fire department by not doing seriously simple maintenance,” Capello told me when we met in his driveway on a drizzly summer morning. As we spoke, he cast his eyes across his property, turning a critical lens onto the land he loved, as he’d been trained to do. Brigade members learn how to conduct home ignition-zone assessments, criss-crossing properties to identify fire vulnerabilities and offering research-tested fixes. Together, the team has conducted more than 400 of these assessments, offering advice to homeowners across a spectrum of spaces and a range of priorities and budgets.

Here are their recommendations for starting that process yourself, whether you are planning ahead or have only hours to try to reduce your risk.

The BeagleBadge is a new ePaper display that’s designed to be worn like the paper badges you’d wear at a conference. But with a 4.2 inch ePaper display, a dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor, support for WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, LoRa, and a variety of sensors and buttons, it can do a lot more than show your […]

The post BeagleBadge is a $99 is an open source wearable with an ePaper display, sensors, and wireless radios appeared first on Liliputing.

At some point, most kids need access to headphones, whether it’s for school, travel, or simply to save an adult’s sanity.

It can be tempting to give children a pair of hand-me-down grown-up headphones, but that isn’t the best option: Not only are the larger size and increased weight less comfortable for younger kids, but the unregulated loudness levels of most adult headphones can lead to permanent hearing damage.

Instead, we recommend that you get a good pair of volume-limiting kids headphones, and we have several picks for different uses.

Of course, volume-limiting headphones are merely one tool that can assist parents or caregivers in protecting a child’s hearing — they are not solutions by themselves. Several factors lead to noise-induced hearing loss, and reducing headphone volume is just one way you can protect a child’s hearing. But our picks, when used properly, should provide an added level of protection for kids’ ears, as well as peace of mind for you.

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• Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Kids Is a Growing Problem. Here’s How to Protect Little Ears.

  Noise-induced hearing loss is a growing problem for kids. It’s preventable, but you need to understand what causes it and take early preventive measures.

Google didn't waste time integrating Gemini into its popular Workspace apps, but those AI features are now getting an overhaul. The company says its new Gemini features for Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides will save you from the tyranny of the blank page by doing the hard work for you. Gemini will be able to create and refine drafts, stylize slides, and gather context from across your Google account. At this rate, you'll soon never have to use that squishy human brain of yours again, and won't that be a relief?

If you go to create a new Google Doc right now, you'll see an assortment of AI-powered tools at the top of the page. Google is refining and expanding these options under the new system. The new AI editing features will appear at the bottom of a fresh document with a text box similar to your typical chatbot interface. From there, you can describe the document you want and get a first draft in a snap. When generating a new document, you can rope in content from sources like Gmail, other documents, Google Chat, and the web.

This also comes with expanded AI editing capabilities. You can use further prompts to reformat and change the document or simply highlight specific sections and ask for changes. Docs will also support AI-assisted style matching, which might come in handy if you have multiple people editing the text. Google notes that all Gemini suggestions are private until you approve them for use.

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Axios reports that Meta has acquired Moltbook, the viral, Reddit-like social network designed for AI agents. Humans are welcome, but only to observe. Axios reports: The deal brings Moltbook's creators -- Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr -- into Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), the unit run by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. Meta did not disclose Moltbook's purchase price. The deal is expected to close mid-March, Meta says, with the pair starting at MSL on March 16. When it launched in late January, Moltbook was labeled the "most interesting place on the internet" by open-source developer and writer Simon Willison. "Browsing around Moltbook is so much fun. A lot of it is the expected science fiction slop, with agents pondering consciousness and identity. There's also a ton of genuinely useful information, especially on m/todayilearned." In an internal post seen by Axios, Meta's Vishal Shah said existing Moltbook customers can temporarily continue using the platform. "The Moltbook team has given agents a way to verify their identity and connect with one another on their human's behalf," Shah says. "This establishes a registry where agents are verified and tethered to human owners." He added: "Their team has unlocked new ways for agents to interact, share content, and coordinate complex tasks."

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German publishers and advertising groups are urging regulators to fine Apple over its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) system, arguing it unfairly restricts access to advertising data while allowing Apple to remain the central gatekeeper -- without subjecting its own apps to the same restrictions. If Germany's antitrust authority does rule against Apple, the company could face fines of up to 10% of its global revenue. 9to5Mac reports: One of the countries investigating whether ATT is anticompetitive is Germany. Last year, in an attempt to appease the country's antitrust watchdog, the company proposed several changes to the framework's rules. From Reuters' original coverage of Apple's changes proposals: "Apple had agreed to introduce neutral consent prompts for both its own services and third-party apps, and to largely align the wording, content and visual design of these messages, said Andreas Mundt, head of Germany's Bundeskartellamt. The company also proposed simplifying the consent process so developers can obtain user permission for advertising-related data processing in a way that complies with data protection law." [...] At the time, German regulators launched a consultation with industry publications to determine whether the proposals addressed their concerns. As it turns out, the answer was a hard no. As Reuters reported today: "Apple's proposed changes to its app tracking rules do not resolve antitrust issues in the mobile advertising market, associations representing German publishers and advertisers said on Tuesday as they urged the country's antitrust authority to slap a fine on the U.S. tech giant. [...] 'The proposed commitments would not change the negative effects of the App Tracking Transparency Framework,' Bernd Nauen, chief executive of the German Advertising Federation, said in a joint letter signed by the trade bodies. 'Apple would remain the data gatekeeper and would continue to decide who gets access to advertising-relevant data and how companies can communicate with their end customers,' he said."

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Every year, we have a blast covering a fresh crop of winners of the Ig Nobel prizes. After 35 years in Boston, the annual prize ceremony will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, this year and will continue to be held in a European city for the foreseeable future. The reason: concerns about the safety of international travelers, who are increasingly reluctant to travel to the US to participate.

“During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of The Annals of Improbable Research magazine, told The Associated Press. “We cannot in good conscience ask the new winners, or the international journalists who cover the event, to travel to the US this year.”

Established in 1991, the Ig Nobels are a good-natured parody of the Nobel Prizes; they honor “achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.” As the motto implies, the research being honored might seem ridiculous at first glance, but that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of scientific merit. The unapologetically campy awards ceremony features miniature operas, scientific demos, and the 24/7 lectures, in which experts must explain their work twice: once in 24 seconds and again in just seven words.

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Private equity firm EQT AB is reportedly exploring a sale of SUSE that could value the open-source Linux pioneer at up to $6 billion, roughly doubling the valuation since EQT took the company private in 2023. Reuters reports: EQT "has hired investment bank Arma Partners to sound out a group of private equity investors for a possible sale of the company, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential matters. The deliberations are at "an early stage and there is no certainty that EQT will proceed with "a transaction, the sources said. [...] The potential deal comes amid a broader selloff in software stocks, which has disrupted mergers and acquisitions activity. Investors are "concerned that new artificial intelligence tools could displace many existing software products, weighing on technology "valuations and making deals harder to price. Some investors, however, see Luxembourg-headquartered SUSE as a potential beneficiary of AI adoption, arguing that demand for enterprise-grade infrastructure software is likely to grow as companies build and deploy more AI applications. The company generates about $800 million in revenue and more than $250 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and could fetch between $4 billion and $6 billion in a sale, the sources said.

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Nokian provided flights from Austin, Texas, to Ivalo, Finland, and accommodation so Ars could visit its test facility. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

IVALO, Finland—In 1987, fictional superspy James Bond careened around a frozen lake in an Aston Martin in the movie The Living Daylights. Bond’s tires were carrying a secret—retractable tire studs that operated with the touch of a button. After cutting a circle in the ice with a wheel to sink the bad guys, Bond deployed his outriggers for balance and his on-demand studs for an impressive getaway.

Nokian Tires played with that idea, presenting a concept in 2014 with similar functionality. However, as Nokian development manager Mikko Liukkula remembers wryly, each tire was so complex that a production set would have cost more than the vehicle itself. Fast-forward to 2026, and Nokian has debuted a giant step forward in studded-tire engineering: a studded winter tire that automatically adjusts to changes in temperature and surface pressure.

I put these new Hakkapeliitta 01 tires through the wringer in and around a frozen-over Lake Tammijärvi at Nokian’s 1,700-acre testing center. After drifting, slaloming, hard braking, and swooshing along snowy trails, I can attest to the quality of the gripping power.

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Amazon’s ecommerce business has summoned a large group of engineers to a meeting on Tuesday for a “deep dive” into a spate of outages, including incidents tied to the use of AI coding tools.

The online retail giant said there had been a “trend of incidents” in recent months, characterized by a “high blast radius” and “Gen-AI assisted changes” among other factors, according to a briefing note for the meeting seen by the FT.

Under “contributing factors” the note included “novel GenAI usage for which best practices and safeguards are not yet fully established.”

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There are generally two groups of people who shop for MacBooks: people who want to buy an Apple laptop, and people who need one for school, work, or some other reason.

If you want a MacBook for all the things it can do, such as editing photos and writing code and recording music and hoarding a few dozen tabs, we recommend the M5 MacBook Air. It’s fantastic for multitasking, and its M5 processor makes it faster, quieter, and more energy-efficient than nearly any other laptop available.

But if you need to buy a MacBook and are looking for something basic, or if you’re shopping for someone who wants the Apple experience, but you don’t want to spend a lot of money, buy the MacBook Neo. While every other laptop manufacturer is raising prices, Apple has made a machine that costs only $600 but is surprisingly capable enough to go online, handle schoolwork, and play a good number of games (36 of the 50 games we tried in our tests). The Air is the better laptop, as it can do more for most people, and the Neo has some considerable drawbacks, including limited RAM and storage. But in a year where the costs of electronics are continuing to rise with no end in sight, the Neo is a strong option for people who don’t need tons of processing power.

Buying a cheap laptop is easy. You just go to Best Buy or Newegg or Amazon or Walmart or somewhere, you pick the cheapest one (or the most expensive one that fits whatever your budget is), and you buy it. For as little as $200 or $300, you can bring home something new (as in, "new-in-box" not as in, "was released recently") that will power up and boot Windows or ChromeOS.

Buying a decent cheap laptop, or recommending one to someone else who's trying to buy one? That's hard.

For several years I helped maintain Wirecutter's guide to sub-$500 laptops, and keeping that guide useful and up to date was a nightmare. It's not that decent options with good-enough specs, keyboards, and screens didn't exist. But the category is a maze of barely differentiated models, some of them retailer-exclusive. You'd regularly run into laptops that were fine except for a bad screen or a terrible keyboard or miserable battery life—some fatal flaw that couldn't be overlooked.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: This week, tens of thousands of game developers and producers will once again gather in San Francisco, as they have since 1988, for the weeklong Game Developers Conference. But this year's show will be missing many international developers who say they no longer feel comfortable traveling to the United States to attend, no matter how relevant the show is to their work and careers. Dozens of those developers who spoke to Ars in recent months say they're wary of traveling to a country that has shown a callous disregard for -- or outright hostility toward -- the safety of international travelers. That's especially true for developers from various minority groups, those with transgender identities, and those who feel they could be targeted for outspoken political beliefs. "I honestly don't know anyone who is not from the U.S. who is planning on going to the next GDC," Godot Foundation Executive Director Emilio Coppola, who's based in Spain, told Ars. "We never felt super safe, but now we are not willing to risk it." "I honestly don't know anyone who is not from the U.S. who is planning on going to the next GDC," says Godot Foundation Executive Director Emilio Coppola, who's based in Spain. "We never felt super safe, but now we are not willing to risk it." "Hearing European citizens getting arrested by border control over their views on the U.S. is not something I would like to test for myself," adds Nazih Fares, a French-Lebanese citizen and creative director at indie studio Le Cabinet du Savoir.. Many of the developers who spoke to Ars cite the intrusive questioning, racial profiling, and other horror stories reported at the U.S. border. "I read a few long reads about how UK/German tourists ended up detained, and that was the final straw for me," Austrian-based Cohop Game founder Eline Muijres said. "It doesn't feel safe for me." Domini Gee, a Canadian game writer and narrative designer echoed that concern, adding: "There's no shortage of stories... about the risk of detainment, deportation, phones being searched... the consequences if I'm not [OK] could be high."

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The FBI is investigating a breach affecting systems tied to wiretapping and surveillance warrant data, after abnormal logs revealed possible unauthorized access to law-enforcement-sensitive information. "The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks, and we have leveraged all technical capabilities to respond," a spokesperson for the bureau said. "We have nothing additional to provide." The Register reports: [W]hile the FBI declined to provide any additional information, it's worth noting that China's Salt Typhoon previously compromised wiretapping systems used by law enforcement. Salt Typhoon is the PRC-backed crew that famously hacked major US telecommunications firms and stole information belonging to nearly every American. According to the Associated Press, the FBI notified Congress that it began investigating the breach on February 17 after spotting abnormal log information related to a system on its network. "The affected system is unclassified and contains law enforcement sensitive information, including returns from legal process, such as pen register and trap and trace surveillance returns, and personally identifiable information pertaining to subjects of FBI investigations," the notification said.

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A startup called Reflect Orbital wants to launch thousands of mirror-bearing satellites to reflect sunlight onto Earth at night and "power solar farms after sunset, provide lighting for rescue workers and illuminate city streets, among other things," reports the New York Times. From the report: It is an idea seemingly out of a sci-fi movie, but the company, Reflect Orbital of Hawthorne, Calif., could soon receive permission to launch its first prototype satellite with a 60-foot-wide mirror. The company has applied to the Federal Communications Commission, which issues the licenses needed to deploy satellites. If the F.C.C. approves, the test satellite could get a ride into orbit as soon as this summer. The F.C.C.'s public comment period on the application closes on Monday. "We're trying to build something that could replace fossil fuels and really power everything," Ben Nowack, Reflect Orbital's chief executive, said in an interview. The company has raised more than $28 million from investors. [...] Reflect Orbital's first prototype, which will be roughly the size of a dorm fridge, is almost complete. Once in space, about 400 miles up, the test satellite would unfurl a square mirror nearly 60 feet wide. That would bounce sunlight to illuminate a circular patch about three miles wide on the Earth's surface. Someone looking up would see a dot in the sky about as bright as a full moon. Two more prototypes could follow within a year. By the end of 2028, Reflect Orbital hopes to launch 1,000 larger satellites, and 5,000 of them by 2030. The largest mirrors are planned to be nearly 180 feet wide, reflecting as much light as 100 full moons. The company said its goal was to deploy the full constellation of 50,000 satellites by 2035. How much does it cost to order sunlight at night? Mr. Nowack said the company would charge about $5,000 an hour for the light of one mirror if a customer signed an annual contract for 1,000 hours or more. Lighting for one-time events and emergencies, which might require numerous satellites and more effort to coordinate, would be more expensive. For solar farms, he envisions splitting revenue from the electricity generated by the additional hours of light.

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In this day and age, many couples are already cohabitating in a house full of things by the time they get married. So the gift-giving tradition of setting up a new home requires a bit of a tweak. A wedding registry is an opportunity to upgrade those old for-now purchases with lifelong commitments to quality, and we’ve got you covered there.

At Wirecutter, we’ve spent years testing the best kitchenware, home tools, and electronics, and we’ve pulled our essential favorites into the ultimate guide of what items you should add to your wedding registry. There are plenty of ideas to suit your needs and interests, whether that’s an earthy dinnerware set or a sturdy dish drainer. Ideally, a registry should be a mix of big-ticket investment items and less-expensive ones, so guests of all tax brackets can joyfully participate in celebrating your nuptials.

If you’re looking for other wedding ideas, we have great gift ideas for bridesmaids and groomsmen, as well as the best bridal shower and anniversary gifts.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Heise: Pay securely with an Android smartphone, completely without Google services: This is the plan being developed by the newly founded industry consortium led by the German Volla Systeme GmbH. It is an open-source alternative to Google Play Integrity. This proprietary interface decides on Android smartphones with Google Play services whether banking, government, or wallet apps are allowed to run on a smartphone. Obstacles and tips for paying with an Android smartphone without official Google services have been highlighted by c't in a comprehensive article. The European industry consortium now wants to address some problems mentioned. To this end, the group, which includes Murena, which develops the hardened custom ROM /e/OS, Iode from France, and Apostrophy (Dot) from Switzerland, in addition to Volla, is developing a so-called "UnifiedAttestation" for Google-free mobile operating systems, primarily based on the Android Open-Source Project (AOSP). According to Volla, a European manufacturer and a leading manufacturer from Asia, as well as European foundations such as the German UBports Foundation, have also expressed interest in supporting it. Furthermore, developers and publishers of government apps from Scandinavia are examining the use of the new procedure as "first movers." In its announcement, Volla explains that Google provides app developers with an interface called Play Integrity, which checks whether an app is running on a device with specific security requirements. This primarily affects applications from "sensitive areas such as identity verification, banking, or digital wallets -- including apps from governments and public administrations". The company criticizes that the certification is exclusively offered for Google's own proprietary "Stock Android" but not for Android versions without Google services, such as /e/OS or similar custom ROMs. "Since this is closely intertwined with Google services and Google data centers, a structural dependency arises -- and for alternative operating systems, a de facto exclusion criterion," the company states. From the consortium's perspective, this also leads to a "security paradox," because "the check of trustworthiness is carried out by precisely that entity whose ecosystem is to be avoided at the same time". The UnifiedAttestation system is built around three main components: an "operating system service" that apps can call to check whether the device's OS meets required security standards, a decentralized validation service that verifies the OS certificate on a device without relying on a single central authority, and an open test suite used to evaluate and certify that a particular operating system works securely on a specific device model. "We don't want to centralize trust, but organize it transparently and publicly verifiable. When companies check competitors' products, we can strengthen that trust," says Dr. Jorg Wurzer, CEO of Volla Systeme GmbH and initiator of the consortium. The goal is to increase digital sovereignty and break free from the control of any one, single U.S. company, he says.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Samsung says it's thinking about bringing "vibe coding" to future Galaxy phones, allowing users to describe apps or interface changes in plain language and have AI generate the code. TechRadar interviewed Won-Joon Choi, Samsung's head of mobile experience, to learn more about the plans. Here's an excerpt from their report: As noted by Won-Joon Choi, the usefulness of vibe coding on smartphones is that it opens up the "possibility of customizing your smartphone experience in new ways, not just your apps but your UX." He added, "Right now we're limited to premade tools, but with vibe coding, users could adjust their favorite apps or make something customized to their needs. So vibe coding is very interesting, and something we're looking into." [...] Samsung recently debuted the Galaxy S26 series of phones and made a point to not call them smartphones -- they're "AI phones" now. This certainly rang true with the majority of upgrades to the devices being AI software-focused, like the new Now Nudge and expanded Audio Eraser tools, with the biggest hardware bump for the base models coming via the 39% improved NPU processing (the processor in charge of on-device AI tasks). It also teased the debut of Perplexity on its phones, joining as an alternative to the Gemini assistant, and teased the possibility of other AI models getting the same treatment in the future.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Editor's note: On Monday afternoon, Blue Origin chief executive Dave Limp sent employees an email announcing a "new stock option" plan that would allow all employees to participate in and eventually convert vested options. This article explains why this is so important for the company in the competitive space industry.

Two years after he founded his space company in the summer of 2004, Jeff Bezos penned a letter that greeted new employees with the message, "Welcome to Blue Origin!" A copy of this letter was subsequently given to new employees for nearly two decades.

At one point in the letter, Bezos questioned whether Blue Origin was a good investment.

"I accept that Blue Origin will not meet a reasonable investor's expectations for return on investment over a typical investing horizon," Bezos wrote. "It's important to the peace of mind of those at Blue to know I won't be surprised or disappointed when this prediction comes true. On the other hand, I do expect that over a very long-term horizon—perhaps even decades from now—Blue will be self-sustaining and operationally profitable, and will yield returns."

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At this January's massive NAMM music tech show in Los Angeles, six products won "best of show" awards. Several of them went to major music and electronic brands like Yamaha and Boss, but one of the six went to Neural DSP, a much smaller company started in 2017 by Chilean immigrants to Finland.

From its base in the Helsinki area, Neural has made itself an expert in the use of machine learning, robots, and impulse response technology to automate the construction of incredibly lifelike guitar amp modeling software. It quickly jumped into the top ranks of an industry dominated by brands like Universal Audio, Kemper, Line 6, and Fractal. For a hundred bucks, you could buy one of the company's plugins and sound like a guitar god with a $10,000 recording chain of amps, cabinets, effects pedals, and microphones.

In 2020, Neural branched out into hardware, putting its tech not in your computer but in a floor-based box covered with footswitches and called the Quad Cortex. While the company's plugins could each replace one entire pedalboard of gear—plus a few amps and cabs—the Quad Cortex could replace a Guitar Center-sized warehouse of devices, offering hundreds of amps, cabs, and effects.

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Apple's M5 Pro and M5 Max make deceptively large changes to how Apple's high-end laptop and desktop chips are built.

We've already covered those changes in some depth, but in essence: The M5 Pro and M5 Max are no longer monolithic chips with all the CPU and GPU cores and everything else packed into a single silicon die. Using an "all-new Fusion Architecture" like the one used to combine two Max chips into a single Ultra chip, Apple now splits the CPU cores (and other things) into one piece of silicon, and the GPU cores (and other things) into another piece of silicon. These two dies are then packaged together into one chip.

M5 Pro and M5 Max both use the same 18-core CPU die, but Pro uses a 20-core GPU die, and Max gets a 40-core GPU die. (Because the memory controller is also part of the GPU die, the Max chip still offers more memory bandwidth and supports higher memory configurations than the Pro one does.)

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The Trump administration agreed to stop pursuing a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster as part of a settlement that blindsided state attorneys general in the middle of a trial. Attorneys general from 27 states and the District of Columbia are continuing to pursue the case without the US government, at least for now.

The US Department of Justice and most US states sued Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary in 2024, during the Biden administration. The lawsuit alleged that Live Nation has a monopoly on "the delivery of nearly all live music in America today," and asked a federal court to order the divestiture of Ticketmaster.

The case went to trial, and testimony began last week in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. But the US and Live Nation informed the court of a proposed settlement on March 8, taking state attorneys general by surprise. The judge presiding over the case reportedly said in court today that the way the settlement was announced "is absolutely unacceptable."

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Warmer waters in the Pacific Ocean may have brought devastating floods to the cradle of ancient Chinese civilization, according to a recent study in which its authors link three wildly different lines of evidence to tell the story.

People in Shang Dynasty China, around 3,000 years ago, probably didn’t realize that the massive floods sweeping through their heartland were the product of typhoons battering the southern Chinese coast hundreds of kilometers away. They certainly couldn't have seen that the sheer intensity of those typhoons was fueled by a sudden shift in temperature cycles over the Pacific Ocean thousands of kilometers to the south and east. But, with the benefit of 3,000 years of hindsight and scientific progress, Nanjing University meteorologist Ke Ding and colleagues recently managed to connect the dots. The results are like a handwritten warning from the Shang Dynasty about how to prepare for modern climate change.

Typhoons, oracle bones, and abandoned settlements

Around 3,000 years ago, two great civilizations were flourishing in central China. In the Yellow River Valley, the Shang Dynasty rose to prominence, producing the first Chinese writing and also sacrificing thousands of people in ceremonies at the capital, Yin. Meanwhile, on the Chengdu Plain in southwestern China, the Sanxingdui culture built a walled capital city and sculpted large bronze heads, gold foil masks, and tools of jade and ivory, which they buried in huge sacrificial pits.

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Last Friday, Nintendo joined thousands of companies suing the Trump administration to secure full refunds, plus interest, for billions in unlawful tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

In its complaint, Nintendo insisted that the Trump administration has already conceded that more than $200 billion in refunds are owed to hundreds of thousands of importers who paid tariffs, regardless of liquidation status.

However, Nintendo fears that the Trump administration may try to avoid paying refunds to certain companies whose tariff payments have already been liquidated, which means that the duties owed were finalized. The government has continually argued that it will only follow through on refunding all importers if a court directly orders refunds to be repaid in a way that requires reliquidation. Such an order would force officials to void all finalized tariffs and come as a relief to many companies in Nintendo's position that remain uncertain if all their tariff payments can be clawed back.

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The Lenovo Slim 7i Aura Edition is a thin and light laptop with am OLED display and an Intel Panther Lake processor. If that sounds familiar, that’s because Lenovo introduced a similar model called the Slim 7 Ultra Aura Edition during CES in January. What makes the new version different is that it’s not quite as thin […]

The post Lenovo Slim 7i Aura Edition is an lightweight laptop with Intel Panther Lake appeared first on Liliputing.

Why do falling cats always seem to land on their feet? Scientists have been arguing about the precise mechanism for a very long time—since at least 1700, in fact—conducting all manner of experiments to pin down what's going on. The research continues, with a paper published in the journal The Anatomical Record reporting on new experiments to analyze the flexibility of feline spines.

We covered this topic in-depth in 2019, when University of North Carolina, Charlotte, physicist Greg Gbur published his book, Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics. For a long time, scientists believed that it would be impossible for a cat in free fall to turn over. That's why French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey's 1894 high-speed photographs of a falling cat landing on its feet proved so shocking to Marey's peers. But Gbur has emphasized that cats are living creatures, not idealized rigid bodies, so the motion is more complicated than one might think.

Over the centuries, scientists have offered four distinct hypotheses to explain the phenomenon. There is the original “tuck and turn” model, in which the cat pulls in one set of paws so it can rotate different sections of its body. Nineteenth-century physicist James Clerk Maxwell offered a “falling figure skater” explanation, whereby the cat tweaks its angular momentum by pulling in or extending its paws as needed. Then there is the “bend and twist,” in which the cat bends at the waist to counter-rotate the two segments of its body. Finally, there is the “propeller tail,” in which the cat can reverse its body’s rotation by rotating its tail in one direction like a propeller.

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Chinese handheld game console maker Anbernic is preparing to launch two new handhelds that look… a lot like an old handheld. The upcoming Anbernic RG Vita and Anbernic RV Vita Pro are portable gaming devices with physical designs (and names) that are heavily inspired by the nearly 15-year-old Sony PlayStation Vita. Pricing and availability information hasn’t been […]

The post Anbernic RG Vita and RG Vita Pro are Android handheld game consoles with familiar design appeared first on Liliputing.

PC makers have been using laptop-class processors for mini PCs for decades. But since mini PCs are usually taller than laptops and don’t need built-in batteries, there’s usually room for more ports and enhanced cooling, among other things. But Chinese PC maker FEVM is preparing to launch a mini PC that’s as thin as a […]

The post This Intel Panther Lake mini PC is as thin as a laptop appeared first on Liliputing.

Late last year Jolla began taking pre-orders for a new smartphone powered by the company’s Sailfish OS software. Now the Finnish company has announced that after receiving over 10,000 pre-orders, it’s preparing to produce its first batch of new Jolla Phones during the second quarter of 2026. Jolla has also launched a second round of […]

The post The new Jolla Phone with Sailfish OS is on track to start shipping in the first half of 2026 appeared first on Liliputing.

Rugged smartphones designed for camping and other off-grid uses have been around for a while. Many have big batteries. Some have ultra-bright flashlights. Some have special features like projectors that let you host movie nights in the woods. But the Oukitel WP63 has a feature I’ve never seen before in a smartphone: an electric igniter […]

The post Oukitel WP63 rugged phone has an igniter for starting fires, a camp light, and a 20,000 mAh battery appeared first on Liliputing.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 is a business-class laptop with a 14.5 inch display, a choice of Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” or AMD Ryzen AI PRO 400 “Gorgon Point” processors, and an emphasis on repairable design. The keyboard, battery, ports, and fans are all designed to be easy to replace. And while […]

The post Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 7 is a repairable laptop with LPCAMM2 memory appeared first on Liliputing.

The ACEMAGIC Retro X5 is a mini PC with an AMD Ryzen AI HX 370 Strix Point processor, support for 2.5 GbE LAN and WiFi 7 networking, and support for DDR5-5600 memory and PCIe 4.0 storage. What really makes it weird though is that the little computer looks like the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game […]

The post ACEMAGIC Retro X5 NES-inspired AMD Strix Point PC ships March 18, available for pre-order now appeared first on Liliputing.

The new Lenovo Yoga Pro 7a (15″ Gen 11) is a premium laptop with a 15.3 inch, 2.5K OLED display, support for up to 128GB of RAM, and an emphasis on graphics and content creation – the laptop’s large Force Pad touchpad features Wacom technology, allowing you to use Lenovo Yoga Pen Gen 2 to draw on […]

The post Lenovo Yoga Pro 7a is a AMD Strix Halo laptop with a 15.3 inch OLED display, up to 128GB RAM, and pen support appeared first on Liliputing.

More than five years after launching an epic legal battle to challenge Google’s Play Store policies, Epic Games has reached a settlement with Google that will result in Google reducing fees and making it easier for developers to offer third-party app stores and third-party billing services for Android devices. Shortly after I saw a Google […]

The post Lilbits: Epic Loves Google now, ZTE launches a 7.5 inch phone, and Chuwi’s shady laptop processor changeup appeared first on Liliputing.

Nothing has introduced two new mid-range smartphones, but only one will be available in the United States. On the one hand, it’s the more expensive model with better specs, which makes sense. On the other hand, it’s a little disappointing that the model the company has been teasing for weeks won’t be available in the US. […]

The post Nothing Phone (4a) Pro launches globally, Nothing Phone (4a) skips the US appeared first on Liliputing.

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2 is an Android tablet with a 13 inch, 3540 x 2190 pixel, 144 Hz display with touch and pen support, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. It features quad speakers, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, microSD card reader, support […]

The post Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2 Android tablet coming in March appeared first on Liliputing.

The FriendlyELEC NanoPi NE03 Plus is a tiny single-board computer (SBC) that measures 48 x 48mm (1.9″ x 1.9″) and features a 2 GHz Rockchip RK3528A quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor with Mali-450 graphics. While the little computer isn’t exactly a speed demon, it is cheap. The NanoPi NE03 Plus available now for $24. But while […]

The post NanoPi NE03 Plus is a tiny, headless single-board PC for $24 appeared first on Liliputing.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 is a thin and light laptop that first debuted in 2020, and which has received several updates over the years with processor, camera, and other improvements. Now Lenovo is expanding the lineup with the first Thinkpad X13 Detachable. The new model is basically a 13 inch tablet with a support for up to an […]

The post Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Detachable is a Panther Lake tablet with a removable keyboard appeared first on Liliputing.

The Apple MacBook Neo is a new entry-level laptop that’s probably arriving at exactly the right time. While PC prices are expected to rise over the coming year due to skyrocketing memory and storage prices, the MacBook Neo is Apple’s cheapest laptop ever with prices starting at just $599. That puts it in competition with […]

The post Apple’s MacBook Neo starts at $599, has an Apple A18 Pro chip and 8GB of RAM appeared first on Liliputing.

As expected, Lenovo unveiled a wild concept device at Mobile World Congress this week called the Lenovo Legion Go Fold. As the name suggests, this is a portable computer that you can use as a handheld gaming PC like other members of the Legion Go family. But thanks to a foldable display, detachable controllers, and an optional […]

The post Lenovo Legion Go Fold concept may be the strangest handheld gaming PC to date (but that’s not all it is) appeared first on Liliputing.

Morefine is the latest Chinese mini PC maker to enter the network-attached storage space. But the Morefine N1 isn’t your typical NAS. With four hard drive bays and three M.2 slots, it can hold a lot of storage. But there’s also support for up to 96GB of DDR5-5600 ECC memory, dual 10 GbE LAN ports, a […]

The post Morefine N1 NAS features Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS, 10 GbE networking, and support for a desktop GPU appeared first on Liliputing.

The Unihertz Titan 2 Elite is an upcoming smartphone that’s designed to look a lot like old smartphones… the kind that were released before capacitive touch displays were a thing and physical keyboards were all the rage. After previewing the phone in January, Unihertz is showing off the phone at MWC this week. The company plans to […]

The post Unihertz Titan 2 Elite debuts at MWC (mid-range phone with a QWERTY keyboard) appeared first on Liliputing.

This article takes a closer look at the NETGEAR Nighthawk RAXE500 WiFi Router.'s performance, specs and features. Also at reviews, tests and sales.

The post NETGEAR Nighthawk RAXE500 Product Guide: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on SmallNetBuilder.

The Archer AXE75 is a capable tri-band, good performing Wifi 6 router

The post The TP-Link Archer AXE75 a Product Guide appeared first on SmallNetBuilder.

SmallNetBuilder Tools are here to help you find the perfect wireless routers, NASes and other networking products. Compare and research product performance with our Charts. Router (old Charts) Wi-Fi Router NAS Wireless Wi-Fi System / Mesh Wireless Adapter / Bridge Wireless Extender Powerline Search for products by features with our Finders. Router (old Finder) Wi-Fi ... Read more

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Is a sub-$100 Wi-Fi 6 router worth buying? We look at three examples to find out.

The post Three Wi-Fi 6 Routers Under $100 Reviewed appeared first on SmallNetBuilder.

We round-up ASUS' ZenWiFi 6E ET8, WiFi 6 ZenWiFi XT8 and WiFi 5/6 RT-AX92U into the ol' test corral for a ride.

The post ASUS Mesh Roundup: Two Zens and a TriBand appeared first on SmallNetBuilder.

Linksys' Atlas Max 6E Wi-Fi Mesh System is the most expensive Wi-Fi mesh system you can buy, but save your money.

The post Linksys MX8500 Atlas Max 6E Wi-Fi Mesh System Reviewed appeared first on SmallNetBuilder.

Our new Wi-Fi Mesh System test process adds latency and multiband testing.

The post How We Test Wi-Fi Mesh Systems – Revision 2 appeared first on SmallNetBuilder.