Minimalist News

Personal AI assistant Moltbot —formerly Clawdbot — has gone viral in a matter of weeks. But there’s more you should know before jumping on the bandwagon.

By Rotation, one of the U.K.’s most popular peer-to-peer fashion rental platforms, is partnering with Uber to deliver ski clothes.

This is a race series for software programmers and the brainchild of founder Palmer Luckey, he tells TechCrunch.

Bluesky is teasing new features and improvements ranging from the Discover feed to video support.

Anthropic looks to raise $20 billion at more than $300 billion valuation, according to reports.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023, alleged that Amazon caused "substantial unjustified monetary losses” for consumers who returned an item but were still charged for it.

Jury selection begins Tuesday as this case moves closer to trial.

Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman spoke out against ICE enforcement tactics following Minneapolis violence, with one addressing concerns publicly and the other in an internal message.

Gemini 3 Pro and other AI tools are now available globally through the Google AI Plus plan, which is $7.99 per month in the United States.

OpenAI has launched a new scientific workspace program called Prism, which integrates AI into existing standards for composing research papers.

European governments are looking to move away from U.S. tech and reclaim their digital sovereignty at a time of unpredictability and volatility in the United States.

A trip in a Waymo robotaxi still costs more, on average, than a comparable ride in a human-driven Uber or a Lyft. But that gap is narrowing, according to new data published Tuesday by Obi, a company that aggregates real-time pricing and pickup times across multiple ride-hailing services.

Pornhub parent company Aylo will restrict access from U.K. users, rather than comply with age-verification mandates, which the company said it believes have not succeeded in promoting online safety.

TikTok says some of the glitches continue but it's making "significant progress" in recovering its U.S. infrastructure.

Strict Account Settings adds restrictions like automatically blocking media and attachments from unknown senders, and silencing calls from unknown numbers.

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Windscribe is a virtual private network (VPN) with intense "How do you do, fellow kids?" energy. It has servers in 69 countries and an annual plan that costs $69, an obsession with the sex number that rivals Elon Musk's. I'm shocked that it doesn't have a subscription costing $4.20 per month. But there's another side to Windscribe's cringe: an obsession with independence and a Bernie Sanders-like anger on behalf of an exploited public. In a market where the best VPNs aim for professionalism, Windscribe aspires to be punk. Its iconoclasm may have led it to develop an app that looks like

If vacuuming is your least favorite chore, employing a robot vacuum can save you time and stress while also making sure your home stays clean. While once most robo-vacs landed on the higher end of the price spectrum, that’s not the case anymore. Sure, you could pick up a $1,000 cleaning behemoth with mopping features, but it would be incorrect to assume that you need to spend that much money to get a good machine. Now, you can get an autonomous dirt-sucker with serious cleaning chops for $500 — sometimes even $300 or less. But you get what you pay for

E Ink tablets have always been intriguing to me because I’m a longtime lover of pen and paper. I’ve had probably hundreds of notebooks over the years, serving as repositories for my story ideas, to-do lists, meeting notes and everything in between. However, I turned away from physical notebooks at a certain point because it was just easier to store everything digitally so I always had my most important information at my fingertips. E Ink tablets seem to provide the best of both worlds: the tactile satisfaction of regular notebooks with many of the conveniences found in digital tools, plus easy-on-the-eyes

Meta has faced some serious questions about how it allows its underage users to interact with AI-powered chatbots. Most recently, internal communications obtained by the New Mexico Attorney General's Office revealed that although Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was opposed to the chatbots having "explicit" conversations with minors, he also rejected the idea of placing parental controls on the feature. Reuters reported that in an exchange between two unnamed Meta employees, one wrote that we "pushed hard for parental controls to turn GenAI off – but GenAI leadership pushed back stating Mark decision.” In its statement to the publication, Meta accused the

Meta has started blocking links to ICE List, a website that compiles information about incidents involving Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents, and lists thousands of their employees' names. It seems that the latter detail is what caused Meta to take action in a move that was first reported by Wired.  ICE List is a crowdsourced Wiki that describes itself as "an independently maintained public documentation project focused on immigration-enforcement activity" in the US. "Its purpose is to record, organize, and preserve verifiable information about enforcement actions, agents, facilities, vehicles, and related incidents that would otherwise remain fragmented,

Adobe Photoshop introduced some new features that are rolling out for creators today. As you'd expect from any service operator in this day and age, there's some AI involved. Adobe has improved the tools for Generative Fill, Generative Expand and Remove that are powered by its Firefly generative AI platform. Using these tools for image editing should now produce results in 2K resolution with fewer artifacts and increased detail all while delivering better matches for the provided prompts. The Reference Image option for Generative Fill has also been upgraded to deliver "geometry-aware results that better match the scene."   One of the

Here's a use of AI that appears to do more good than harm. A pair of astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) developed a neural network that searches through space images for anomalies. The results were far beyond what human experts could have done. In two and a half days, it sifted through nearly 100 million image cutouts, discovering 1,400 anomalous objects. The creators of the AI model, David O'Ryan and Pablo Gómez, call it AnomalyMatch. The pair trained it on (and applied it to) the Hubble Legacy Archive, which houses tens of thousands of datasets from Hubble's 35-year history.

Wireless audio has become the industry standard, but there are still options out there for people who prefer a wired connection. Two new choices joining the market come from Sennheiser, which has released the CX 80U wired earbuds and HD 400U wired over-ear headphones. These new takes on the company's previous models for wired listening have replaced the 3.5mm audio jack connector with a USB-C cable. Both sets support 24-bit, 96 kHz digital audio playback. They're compatible with a broad array of devices, including iOS, iPadOS, Android, ChromeOS, MacOS, Windows and SteamOS.  Both of these items are priced at an entry

Pornhub will stop offering full access to new users in the UK on February 2, its parent company Aylo said Tuesday, citing the nation's Online Safety Act and its age-verification requirements. The company said users who already verified their ages before the cutoff will still be able to access the adult site through existing accounts. The move follows the Online Safety Act’s Protection of Children Codes, which took effect last summer and require adult sites to use "highly effective" methods of age verification. Aylo claims the system is backfiring and shifting both adults and minors to noncompliant porn sites that don’t

A recent investigation by an online advocacy organization called the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that the Apple App Store and Google Play Store are rife with so-called "nudify" apps. These are AI applications that create nonconsensual and sexualized images, which is a clear violation of both companies' store policies. All told, the investigation found 55 of this type of app in the Google Play Store and 47 in the Apple App Store. Both platforms also still offer access to xAI's Grok, which is likely the most famous nonconsensual deepfake maker in the world. "Apple and Google are supposed to be vetting

Sonos has unveiled its first new product of 2026, the Amp Multi. This amplifier is a niche option for the owners of very large or complicated spaces, and it's being billed as professional grade option for residential audio installations. The Amp Multi has eight 125W outputs and four configurable zones, and each channel can support up to three Sonos Architectural speakers. In other words, that's a lot more audio than the average home needs. Even the Sonos Amp would probably be overkill for those of you living the apartment life. The Amp Multi will be available "in the coming months," according

The French government is saying au revoir to Microsoft Teams and Zoom as it embraces a home-grown alternative. By next year, civil servants across all departments will have switched to French videoconference platform Visio, as EuroNews reports. As with Teams and Zoom, Visio has an AI-powered transcription tool. Visio runs on a French company's cloud infrastructure as well. The platform has around 40,000 users and it's been in testing for the last year. The government expects the switch to help reduce costs by as much as €1 million ($1.2 million) each year for every 100,000 users. The decision to ditch Microsoft Teams

TikTok has reached a settlement in a closely-watched lawsuit over social media addiction, narrowly avoiding a trial that's scheduled to begin jury selection Tuesday. Terms of the deal, which was reported by The New York Times, weren't disclosed.  TikTok's settlement comes about one week after Snap reached a settlement in the same case. The trial is expected to move forward in Los Angeles with Meta and YouTube as the only defendants. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the plaintiff, said in a statement to NYT that they were "pleased" with the settlement and that it was "a good resolution." TikTok didn't immediately

Amazon is rethinking its grocery business, and as part of that, it will shut down all of its remaining Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores. The company will convert some locations into Whole Foods Market stores.  "While we've seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven't yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion," the company wrote in a blog post. Amazon added that it would help workers at Go and Fresh stores to find positions elsewhere within the company. For now, Amazon is focusing its grocery efforts on Fresh

Google AI Plus, the company’s most affordable AI subscription plan, is now rolling out in the US. It will cost you $8 a month for its features, though you can get it for $4 a month for the first two months for a limited time only. AI Plus gives you access to 200GB of storage, as well as access to the Gemini 3 Pro model, Deep Research and Nano Banana Pro inside the Gemini app. Nano Banana Pro generates images that look so realistic, they’re nearly indistinguishable from ordinary photos snapped on phones. Google even had to limit its usage

OpenAI is releasing a new app called Prism today, and it hopes it does for science what coding agents like Claude Code and its own Codex platform have done for programming.  Prism builds on Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform the company is announcing it acquired today. For the uninitiated, LaTeX is a typesetting system for formatting scientific documents and journals. Nearly the entire scientific community relies on LaTeX, but it can make some tasks, such as drawing diagrams through TikZ commands, time-consuming to do. Beyond that, LaTeX is just one of the software tools a scientist might turn to when preparing

Meta's WhatsApp just introduced something called Strict Account Settings, a tool "that further protects your account from highly sophisticated cyber attacks." This is a one-click button in the settings that automatically initiates a series of defenses. So what does it do? It blocks media and attachments from unknown senders, disables link previews and silences calls from unknown senders. This results in a more restrictive experience, but hopefully a safer one. The company says this isn't necessarily for regular users, as conversations are already protected by end-to-end encryption. Instead, this is being pitched as a tool for "journalists or public-facing figures" that "may

Yahoo has announced a new AI-powered "answer engine", dubbed Yahoo Scout. The new tool is available now in beta and is powered by Anthropic's Claude. The company says Scout "synthesizes" info from the web, as well as Yahoo's own data and content when constructing responses to user's natural-language search queries. Yahoo says the interface will include interactive digital media, structured lists and tables and visible source links aimed at making answers easier to verify. (Disclosure: Yahoo is the parent company of Engadget.) Alongside Scout, Yahoo is announcing an "intelligence platform" across its varied products. This will include features like AI summaries in

Samsung’s 2025 was filled with new foldables, an ultra-thin new form factor and the launch of Google's XR platform. After making some announcements at CES 2026, the company is expected to host its first Galaxy Unpacked of the year in February to introduce the Galaxy S26 lineup. Engadget will be covering Galaxy Unpacked live, and we'll most likely have hands-on coverage of Samsung's new smartphones soon after they're announced. While we wait for an official invite, here's everything we expect Samsung will introduce at the first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2026. GALAXY S26, S26+ AND S26 ULTRA Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra hands-on photo Photo

Google has begun rolling out two upgrades for Search. Starting today, Gemini 3 is the default model powering AI Overviews. When the company debuted its new family of AI systems last November, it first deployed Gemini 3 in AI Overviews through a router that was programmed to direct the most difficult questions to the new system. Now Google is making Gemini 3 the standard for all users globally. In practice, Gemini 3 should prove better at generating more credible and relevant summaries.  As for that second upgrade, now you can jump into AI Mode conversation directly from an AI Overview. Google

After more than two months of contract disputes, NBCUniversal's lineup of channels are still not being carried by Fubo, which is a bummer for anyone hoping to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics. Once again, NBC will be the primary place to watch the Winter Games, but Fubo subscribers will need to find alternate viewing methods if they want to watch events like figure skating, ice hockey, luge or skiing this year. The Olympics will also be broadcast on the USA Network and CNBC, and those channels are similarly blacked out on Fubo. While the two media companies continue their negotiations, subscribers

Pinterest is planning on laying off up to 15 percent of its workforce, according to a report by CNBC. The company has been posting stellar earnings reports these past few quarters, so why punish employees? You already know the answer. It's AI. The company said it's "reallocating resources" to AI projects and prioritizing "AI-powered products and capabilities." It's also cutting down on office space, presumably because AI algorithms don't require cubicles and the occasional low-grade snack. Pinterest noted in a recent security filing that it expects these cuts to the workforce will be complete by the end of the third quarter in

If your TikTok feed has felt a little off lately, it's not just you. TikTok says is still working to fix its service in the US following a power outage at one of its data centers that's caused “multiple bugs” in the app. TikTok users have reported problems logging in and uploading videos, as well as strange behavior from the "for you" algorithm. Creators have also noticed that new uploads are seemingly getting o views or likes and that in-app earnings have disappeared. "Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center

The European Commission has started proceedings to ensure Google complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in certain ways. Specifically, the European Union’s executive arm has told Google to grant third-party AI services the same level of access to Android that Gemini has. "The aim is to ensure that third-party providers have an equal opportunity to innovate and compete in the rapidly evolving AI landscape on smart mobile devices," the Commission said in a statement.  The company will also have to hand over "anonymized ranking, query, click and view data held by Google Search" to rival search engines. The Commission says

MicroSD Express cards are still a little hard to find, considering they're pretty new and only really started becoming popular last year once the Switch 2 came out. These upgraded versions of microSD cards are the only ones compatible with the Switch 2 for expanding its storage, os if you're already starting to feel the crunch on your console, it's worth picking one up. Samsung's P9 microSD Express card is on sale right now — you can grab the 512GB version of $80, which is 33 percent off and one of the best prices we've seen. The P9 boasts transfer speeds

Every time Apple's AirPods 4 with active noise cancelation go on sale I have the same thought: maybe I made a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I love my regular AirPods 4, but the noise canceling aspect makes their sister pair very enticing. Take now, for instance, when the AirPods 4 with ANC are on sale for $119, down from $179. The 34 percent discount brings them to only $4 more than the standard AirPods 4 current sale price and below their usual $129. While we've seen the ANC model as low as $99, the $119 price tag is the best

With the spring approaching, it's time to start thinking about how you'll file your taxes. Unfortunately, with the recent demise of Direct File, there isn't a free, government-provided alternative to TurboTax in 2026, and you'll need to look to other federal programs, including IRS Free File, to file your paperwork. If you don't qualify for Free File, chances are you'll need to dish out cash for Intuit's software. And while we hate to suggest you give money to a company that has spent decades lobbying to ensure America's tax system remains a nightmare, we can at least save you some

As promised, Samsung is bringing its Galaxy Z Trifold smartphone to shoppers in the US. The unique foldable goes on sale on January 30.  The phone was announced along with its select markets' sale dates at the close of 2025. We didn't have price information for Samsung's domestic market at that time, and even though we were anticipating the Galaxy Z Trifold to cost a bundle, the actual cost is more absurd than we'd guessed. In reality, getting your hands on this slim triple-screen smartphone will run you $2,900.  Putting aside the ludicrous expense, this smartphone is pretty dang cool. After his

Lego unveiled its Smart Play system at CES 2026 earlier this month, with a selection of sets designed for the engaging feature. Now, the toy company has announced five new compatible sets — all Stars Wars themed — available now for pre-order. Anthony Daniels, the original C-3PO, shared the news during the Nuremberg Toy Fair.  The Smart Play system, Lego's newest venture, involves a Smart Brick, Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures. Each Smart Brick has proximity sensors, an accelerometer, a speaker and more. The Smart Tags and Smart Minifigures relay what's happening to the Brick. For example, if you whoosh a

The AirPods Pro 3 are on sale and back at their record low price of $199. This is marked down from $250, a hefty 20 percent discount. This model was just released in September of last year, so consider this a substantial discount for such a recent product. We gave these AirPods a score of 90 out of 100 in our review and we consider them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone users. The third generation model is a substantial update to an already impressive product, bringing new features like live translation to the table. The AirPods Pro 3 also offer heart-rate

California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that his office is investigating whether TikTok is truly censoring content critical of Trump, days after ByteDance finalized a deal to spin off its business in the US. Newsom made the announcement in response to a post on X, claiming that you can no longer send messages in the app with the word “Epstein” in it. Newsom’s office, in a separate post, said it was able to independently confirm instances wherein TikTok suppressed content critical of President Donald Trump. The governor’s office told Politico that it tried to send a direct message with the word

Between the new Macs, iPhones and rumored AI gadgets, Apple surprised us with an upgraded, second-generation AirTag. It has Apple’s latest Ultra Wideband chip — the same one used in the iPhone 17 lineup and the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It also uses Precision Finding to reach items up to 50 percent further away than the previous AirTag model. This feature will now work with any Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2 or newer. TMA Apple Apple says the new tag is 50 percent louder and features a “distinctive new chime.” So you can show off that you’ve got the new kind of

The right accessories can transform your Apple Watch into the best workout companion, a stylish timepiece and everything in between. Whether you’re looking to upgrade its style, recharge its battery quickly or make it even more convenient to use on the go, there’s an accessory out there that can help. From a stylish sport loop that keeps things comfortable during workouts to a sturdy charging stand for your bedside, there are plenty of ways to enhance your experience. Apple has a few Watches at this point: the flagship model, the Ultra 2 and the Watch SE, and you can find accessories

Wireless earbuds are now the default option for everyday listening, whether you’re heading out for a commute, fitting in a workout or just watching videos at home. The best wireless earbuds combine reliable connectivity, comfortable fits and sound quality that holds up across music, calls and podcasts, all without the hassle of cables. Most are small enough to disappear into a pocket and pair quickly with phones, tablets and laptops. What sets one pair apart from another often comes down to priorities. Some earbuds lean heavily on active noise cancellation, while others focus on long battery life, compact charging cases or

TikTok's newly formed US entity is off to a very bumpy start. As the app continues to face technical issues affecting the recommendation algorithm, view counts and other features, TikTok is also seeing a wave of frustrated users uninstalling it, according to new data. Analytics firm Sensor Tower, which tracks downloads and other app store-related metrics, told CNBC that there has been a 150 percent rise in uninstalls of the TikTok app in the United States compared with the last three months. An analyst at Sensor Tower told Engadget that TikTok's US daily active users (DAUs) have increased about 2 percent

Google has agreed to a $68 million settlement regarding claims that its voice assistant inappropriately spied on smartphone users. Plaintiffs claimed that the company’s Google Assistant platform began listening to them after it misheard conversations that sounded like its wake words. The suit argued that private information that Google Assistant shouldn't have heard was then used to deliver those individuals targeted ads.  Reuters reported that Google denied wrongdoing in the suit, but according to court papers, the company agreed to a settlement in order to avoid the risk and costs of litigating the issue. The preliminary class action settlement was filed

Google is rolling out a Gemini feature that could turn out to be pretty useful for many folks. It's a Google Calendar tool that can help figure out the best time to schedule a meeting, taking into account attendees' schedules. When creating a meeting, you can click the "Suggested times" option and Gemini will look at the availability that people have marked on their calendar and potential conflicts. You'll then be able to choose from a list of suggested time slots. But the time you pick may not work for everyone. So if multiple people decline the meeting invite, you can

It looks like Ubisoft is planning even more layoffs to accompany last week's studio closures and game cancellations, according to reporting by IGN. The company is planning a massive reduction of the workforce in its Paris headquarters. It has proposed the loss of up to 200 jobs, which is nearly 20 percent of the current staff. This will be organized under France's Rupture Conventionnelle Collective (RCC) process, in which staff can agree to form a collective, voluntary mutual termination agreement. It's not a done deal just yet, with a company spokesperson saying "at this stage, this remains a proposal and no

Since March 2025, ChatGPT has been capable of generating images. Following a period where it briefly wasn't available to free users, you now don't even pay for one of OpenAI's subscriptions to use this feature. And while making images inside of ChatGPT is easy, there are some nuances worth explaining. For example, did you know you can ask ChatGPT to edit photos you've taken? It's more powerful than you might think. Here’s everything you need to know about generating AI images with ChatGPT.   HOW TO CREATE IMAGES WITH CHATGPT USING TEXT PROMPTS  To begin making an image in ChatGPT, you can start

Anthropic has been building out support for third-party apps inside of Claude. As of today, the chatbot can now connect to platforms like Slack and Canva, fetching up files from inside those apps or performing tasks within them on a user's behalf. For instance, when connected to Box, Claude can now search for files, preview documents inline and answer questions about the content in front of you. Meanwhile, with a connection to Asana, it can now turn chats into projects, tasks and timelines your co-workers can then find and interact with on the project management app.  Box and Asana are just two

The Trump administration is planning on using Google Gemini to draft important federal regulations, as reported by ProPublica. This is starting with the Department of Transportation, according to interviews with agency staffers. Regulations created by the DOT help keep us safe when traveling. The plan was initially presented to DOT staffers last month, with agency attorney Daniel Cohen writing to colleagues about AI's "potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings." Gregory Zerzan, the agency's general counsel, has indicated that President Donald Trump is "very excited by this initiative" and that DOT will be "the first agency that is fully enabled

If you're looking to up your privacy game on the internet in the new year, you can do so for a little less than usual thanks to ExpressVPN's latest deal. Its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now: the Advanced tier is on sale for $101 for two years, plus four additional free months. That works out to $3.59 per month during the promotional period. We’ve consistently liked ExpressVPN because it’s fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest

It’s time to jump back into the pit. Ball x Pit is one of the very best games of 2025 and there’s now even more to play around with in the brick-busting roguelite. The first major free update for the game (one of three that’s on the cards this year) just arrived on all platforms. It added a bunch more stuff to the mix, including two new characters, eight extra special balls with powerful abilities and an endless mode. Developer Kenny Sun wrote on the PlayStation Blog that because fans demanded it so much, endless mode jumped right to the top

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are coming up. (Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images) Mattia Ozbot via Getty Images The 2026 Winter Olympics are taking place in Italy this year, with all the action taking place in Milan and the Alpine city of Cortina. This year marks the fourth time Italy has hosted the Winter Games; most recently, Turin hosted in 2006. Of the 16 sports that will be featured at the Winter Olympics, there will be 15 returning favorites, including figure skating, Alpine skiing, curling, ice hockey, speedskating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and ski jumping, and one entirely new sport, snow mountaineering. (Will it

The start of the new year is a great time to get your finances in order, and a good budgeting app can help with that. Instead of laboring over a spreadsheet, you can try one of our favorite budgeting apps for less than usual. Monarch Money is running a sale that gives new users 50 percent off one year of the service, bringing the final cost down to just $50. Just use the code NEWYEAR2026 at checkout to get the discount. Monarch Money makes for a capable and detailed budgeting companion. You can use the service via apps for iOS, Android,

Aluminium OS looks like exactly what it is: a hybrid of Android and ChromeOS. We've been waiting months for our first look at Android running on a PC in Google's upcoming ChromeOS / Android hybrid platform, codenamed Aluminium OS. Now we've seen it in action, and have Google to thank for the leak. 9to5Google spotted a bug report related to Chrome Incognito tabs published to the Google Issue Tracker yesterday, including two screen recordings taken from a device running Aluminium OS. Google has now restricted access to the report, but 9to5Google managed to pull the videos first. The site also reports that

Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), from left, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Sen. John Boozman (R-AK), Rep. French Hill (R-AK), and David Sacks, White House Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Crypto czar, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. | Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Hello and welcome to Regulator, the Verge newsletter about the technology politics happening in our nation's capital. I hope our snowstorm-affected readers are safe, warm, and haven't reenacted The Shining at home yet. Do you know what prevents that? Subscribing to The Verge. Last week, when I was tracking Coinbase's opposition

The Android ecosystem is all about choice. While iPhone owners have a smaller pool of new devices to pick from when it’s time to upgrade, there’s a wider range of choices on Android. Some Android phones even fold in half! Imagine. On the flip side, all that choice can make for some hard decisions. Here’s where I’d like to help; I’ve tested a whole boatload of recent Android phones, and I think there are some real winners in the current batch. It’s all a matter of what you’re looking for, what you’re comfortable spending, and what your definition of a “reasonably

Over the last few months of 2025, Meta spent $6.4 million on an ad campaign running in cities across the country, from Sacramento to Washington, with a clear mission: win over viewers on the construction of new data centers. As the New York Times reports, the ad campaign is anchored by short, folksy video spotlights on Meta's data centers in Altoona, Iowa, and Los Lunas, New Mexico. The ads make the case that Meta's data centers create jobs, revitalizing rural communities. However, they take a fairly idealistic tone. For instance, the Altoona ad portrays a town on the brink of disappearing, but

An open-source AI agent that "actually does things" is taking off, with people across the web sharing how they're using the agent to do a whole bunch of things, like manage reminders, log health and fitness data, and even communicate with clients. The tool, called Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot), runs locally on a variety of devices, and you can ask it to perform tasks on your behalf by chatting with it through WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Discord, and iMessage. Federico Viticci at MacStories highlighted how he installed Moltbot on his M4 Mac Mini and transformed it into a tool that delivers daily audio

Apple is renewing certificates for iOS versions dating back to 2013 to keep the lights on a little longer.

Researchers have documented the births of nearly two dozen North Atlantic right whale calves this season. It’s an encouraging sign for a species whose population is estimated to be below 400.

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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Pitt, and Industry are just a few of the shows you need to be watching on HBO Max this month.

Alexa+ has been rolling out to everyone with a Prime membership, even if you didn’t ask for it. Here’s how to change it back.

Anker knocks almost half the cost off its already budget-friendly earbuds.

At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are taking action against xAI after Grok generated a flood of nonconsensual sexual images of women and minors.

Research from the ride-hail aggregator Obi finds Waymo is starting to edge up on Uber and Lyft in San Francisco. Tesla, which operates a ride-hail service with human drivers, is winning the price wars.

Users of Meta’s social platforms can no longer share links to ICE List, a website listing what it claims are the names of thousands of DHS employees.

Whether you’re working from home or just trying to hit your step goals, these walking pad deals make it easy to move every day.

A federal agent allegedly tried to enter Google’s Cambridge campus in the fall, WIRED has learned. Now, staffers want policies that protect them from immigration officials.

Only users who have already registered and completed age verification will be able to access the world's largest porn site.

From bluebird days to blizzards, WIRED tested the best ski goggles for all weather conditions.

Fauna, a new startup, is betting that humanoid robots will find success as hospitality workers, research assistants, and entertainers.

If you’re new to smart home tech, light bulbs are an affordable, low-commitment place to start.

Our expert team of laptop testers stand behind these Windows laptops, MacBooks, Chromebooks, and Linux portables.

A source trapped inside an industrial-scale scamming operation contacted me, determined to expose his captors’ crimes—and then escape. This is his story.

A whistleblower trapped inside a “pig butchering” scam compound gave WIRED a vast trove of its internal materials—including 4,200 pages of messages that lay out its operations in unprecedented detail.

We asked tech CEOs, journalists, entertainers, students, and more about the promise and peril of artificial intelligence. Here’s what they said.

An airline’s boarding policy shake-up shows the limits of efficiency. (Spoiler: It’s money.)

I’ve tested two new laptops powered by Panther Lake—pitting them head-to-head against laptops with Apple Silicon—and Intel has finally scored a much-needed win with the Core Ultra Series 3.

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A federal judge ordered a new briefing due Wednesday on whether DHS is using armed raids to pressure Minnesota into abandoning its sanctuary policies, leaving ICE operations in place for now.

“In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this,” one worker wrote on Slack.

The technical failure coincided with TikTok’s ownership transition, leading users to question whether videos criticizing ICE raids in Minnesota were being intentionally censored.

A user from r/Minneapolis was among the first to share footage of federal agents shooting Alex Pretti. Following his death, subreddits about football, cats, and embroidery have all rallied against ICE.

Get some solid shut-eye with the help of these sleep masks. Our top pick is from Blissy.

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The second-generation AirTag features Apple’s newer Ultra Wideband chip and has a louder speaker and better range.

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Sexual deepfakes continue to get more sophisticated, capable, easy to access, and perilous for millions of women who are abused with the technology.

As the data center backlash grows, support is growing for server factories and the hundreds of jobs they’re expected to bring.

Democratic lawmakers have few options that wouldn’t trigger something like civil war.

This new prescription hearing aid has a special chip designed to improve hearing in noisy conditions.

A thin, watery layer coating the surface of ice is what makes it slick. Despite a great deal of theorizing over the centuries, though, it isn't entirely clear why that layer forms.

You don't need to Ernest Shackleton yourself to reap the benefits of cold plunging. A calm, controlled ice bath is key.

Who cares about kids when adult collectors are willing to pay top dollar?

This is the easiest to use 3D printer I've ever tried.

Keep things smelling fresh with these handy home gadgets. After researching and testing over a dozen devices, the Urpower Aroma is our favorite for most people.

Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis.