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Scented products cause indoor air pollution on par with car exhaust

Using scented products indoors changes the chemistry of the air, producing as much air pollution as car exhaust does outside, according to a new study. Researchers say that breathing in these nanosized particles could have serious health implications. When you hear or see the words ‘air pollution,’ you most likely think of things like factories and car exhaust. That’s pollution that is out there – outside your house. But have you thought about how you’re contributing to air pollution inside of

32 of the Best Gifts Under $100 for 2025

They say dogs are a man's best friend but so are these personalized pet pillows. Whether it's to liven up their office or home, if someone's not actually cuddling with their pet, they can do the next best thing -- cuddle with their likeness in pillow form. You can choose from eight different colorful backgrounds, from gray to mint to lavender, and all you have to do is upload a photo of the pet to Etsy seller DrawYourPortrait. I gifted this pillow to a family that I Chihuahua-sit for, and they l

The Thing and the Human Torch Are Coming to Marvel Rivals on Feb. 21

The Fantastic Four were the first new characters to join the roster in Marvel Rivals season 1, but so far only Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman have been added. The team will be in full force on Feb. 21 as the Thing and the Human Torch will make their debut in the hero shooter. Developer NetEase Games confirmed the addition of the two heroes on Tuesday on its Dev Talk blog. The characters' introduction to the game will conclude the first half of season 1 and bring with it some major balanc

DOGE Now Has Access to the Top US Cybersecurity Agency

Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old engineer with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) known as “Big Balls,” is now on staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), WIRED has confirmed. He is joined by another member of the DOGE team, 38-year-old software engineer Kyle Schutt, who is now also on the CISA staff, according to a government source. CISA referred WIRED to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which it’s a component agency, when

Study of TikTok, X ‘For You’ feeds in Germany finds far-right political bias ahead of federal elections

Recommendation algorithms operated by social media giants TikTok and X have shown evidence of substantial far-right political bias in Germany ahead of a federal election that takes place Sunday, according to new research carried out by Global Witness. The non-government organization (NGO) undertook an analysis of social media content displayed to new users via algorithmically sorted “For You” feeds — finding both platforms skewed heavily toward amplifying content that favors the far-right AfD p

Saronic raises $600M to mass-produce autonomous warships

Austin-based defense startup Saronic has raised a $600 million Series C to build an autonomous ship factory called “Port Alpha,” it announced yesterday, quadrupling its valuation to $4 billion from its last round. Investor Elad Gil led the round, with General Catalyst joining existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, and Caffeinated Capital, among others. That should make Saronic the second, possibly third, most valuable defense tech startup in the U.S. after Anduril’s last round valued it

‘For You’ feeds are not for creators, Patreon says

Patreon has continued on its crusade against algorithmic feeds with its latest State of Create report, a look at trends in the creator economy based on internal data, and it’s an effort creators can get behind. In its survey of 1,000 creators and 2,000 fans, the membership platform reported that 53% of creators think it is more difficult to reach their followers today than five years ago. This doesn’t come as a surprise. Celebrities have fought against Instagram’s video-centric, algorithmic fe

Killer Asteroid Could Be Headed for Some of the World's Most Populous Cities

According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 now has a 3.1 percent chance of colliding with our planet on December 22, 2032. That makes it the highest-threat asteroid ever detected, as Euronews reports. As of late January, the probability was sitting at just 1.3 percent, which then rose to 2.1 percent last week before rising yet again. Worse yet, the space agency suggests the asteroid could hit densely populated areas of our planet — if it were to make an impact just un

Xbox’s AI initiative with Muse is an attempt to read the tea leaves, not the room

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Earlier today, the heads of Microsoft’s Xbox division revealed Muse, a generative AI model that intends to create both visuals and gameplay for games. The model, which was trained on the largely forgotten Ninja Theory multiplayer game Bleeding Edge, is not a shocking leap for Microsoft’s Xbox division. The company as a whole, from CEO Satya Nadella down, has wholeheart

Apple Intelligence on iPhone is now $200 cheaper — with just two small trade-offs

Want a new iPhone with Apple Intelligence? Before today, that would set you back about $800. After Apple’s latest iPhone announcement, however, the cost to access Apple Intelligence on iPhone is 25% less. There are just two very minor caveats. Apple Intelligence is a suite of various features powered by artificial intelligence. Apple provides its AI tools with privacy in mind, using a stateless server system called Private Cloud Compute. This privacy-centric approach is unlike other modern AI s

Netflix's content briefly showed up in the Apple TV app

Breaking: Someone made an oopsie. On Thursday, word spread online that some of Netflix's content began appearing in the Apple TV app. The lack of an official announcement (and extremely buggy nature) of the integration was enough to cast doubt on the news. But that didn't stop users from rejoicing and sharing "FINALLY!" GIFs on social media. Unfortunately, your triumphant festivities weren't warranted, as the company has said it was unintentional. A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge on Friday

The ThinkPad I recommend for hybrid workers in 2025 isn't the newest model - and it's 50% off

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET What's the deal? Lenovo has slashed the price of its 12th-Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon by nearly 50%. The model housing an Intel Core Ultra 5 135U processor is on sale at a discounted $1,377, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 165U configuration sits at almost $1,920. ZDNET's key takeaways After making calculated adjustments to last year's model, Lenovo's 12th-Gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon It sports an 8MP webcam that allows for 4K video, a stunning 2.8K display, and a slightly redesigned

"Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order

Presidential Actions Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Policy and Purpose. The Constitution vests all executive power in the President and charges him with faithfully executing the laws. Since it would be impossible for the President to single-handedly perform all the executive business of the Federal Government, the Constitution also provides for

Malaysia is betting on data centers to boost its economy

JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia (AP) — Winson Lau has always had contingency plans. But he wasn’t prepared for data centers. Lau relies on water and electricity to operate his thriving export business in Malaysia’s Johor province, where he raises a kaleidoscope of tropical fish in rows of aquariums, including albino fish with red spots that can fetch up to $10,000 from collectors. His contingency plans in the event of an outage involve an intricate system of purifying wastewater through friendly bacteria

RFK Jr. Wastes No Time Revisiting Childhood Vaccine Policies

Well that didn’t take long. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the just-enshrined director of the Department of Health and Human Services, has already signaled that he may try to change the country’s vaccination schedule for children. RFK Jr. made the remarks during his speech at a ceremony held on Tuesday welcoming him as the new HHS secretary. He announced that he would form a commission to study the childhood vaccine schedule as a possible factor for the increase of chronic diseases in Americans, among

US Soldier Accused of Verizon and AT&T Hacks Pleads Guilty

Cameron John Wagenius, a former US Army soldier, pleaded guilty to his role in a hack that affected AT&T and Verizon and resulted in the theft of data from well over 100 million customers of the companies, according to TechCrunch. Wagenius, a 20-year-old stationed in Texas, copped to two counts of “unlawful transfer of confidential phone records information” and will face a fine of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison for each of the charges. Wagenius was taken into custody last year aft

NASA Captures Devastating Tennessee Floods From Space After Winter Storm Drenches Region

A large winter storm system that moved across the East Coast over the weekend caused serious floods in Tennessee and Kentucky, as seen in newly released NASA satellite images. The images show the Mississippi River’s serpentine path in western Tennessee and eastern Arkansas and Missouri. They also show the rivers and water bodies east of the Mississippi—in Tennessee—inundated by up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain over a 48-hour period. A state of emergency was declared in Tennessee after a

Elon’s DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion. The Real Figure Was $8 Million.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency claims to be fighting the scourge of government “waste” and fraud and, this week, DOGE claimed that it had already saved taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. However, in an ironic twist, it would appear that the claims being made by Musk and DOGE about their own activities appear to be, themselves, fraudulent. Despite recently claiming that it had already saved Americans $55 billion, the information on DOGE’s website only accounts for $16 billio

What It Took to Bring Those Viral Star Trek Short Films to Life

In the past few years, there’s been plenty of Star Trek to talk about—new shows starting, older shows coming to their ends, the franchise’s future on screens big and small alike (although not always entirely successfully). But for some Trek diehards, a peculiar string of numbers is all that has been on their lips: 765874. That number—the purported Starfleet serial number of Yeoman J. M. Colt from the original Star Trek pilot episode “The Cage”—is the title that has been given to a series of sho

6 Things We Liked, and 4 We Didn’t, About Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

While the jury is still out on whether or not Marvel is “back” after the mixed reception of the not-so-brave and not-so-new Captain America film, things are continuing on the upswing in the animation department. Marvel Animation’s latest romp, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, has been must-watch weekly television on Disney+. This is saying a lot since it’s been vying for comic book fans’ attention by streaming against the likes of Prime Video’s Invincible season three. Amid the long-stand

'Bridgerton' Season 4 Dropped a Sneak Peek: How to Watch, and What to Know

Longing to slip back into the romantic world of Lady Whistledown and the breathtaking gowns, jewels and hairdos of Netflix's Bridgerton? Season 4 is in production, and Netflix released a sneak peek to tantalize fans of life in the 'Ton. The sneak peek doesn't spoil any major plotlines, but the scenes of the masquerade ball show off beautiful gowns and tantalizing masks. The series is based on Julia Quinn's best-selling novel series, where each of the eight Bridgerton children eventually get th

These Are the SpaceX Engineers Already Working Inside the FAA

Engineers who work for Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been brought on as senior advisers to the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), sources tell WIRED. On Sunday, Sean Duffy, secretary of the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, announced in a post on X that SpaceX engineers would be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Virginia to take what he positioned as a tour. “The safety of air travel is a nonpartisan matter,” Musk replied. “S

Tesla Cybertruck: all the news about Elon Musk’s futuristic pickup truck

Here’s everything you need to know about Tesla’s first pickup truck, which Elon Musk has called “heart-stopping” and his “personal favorite” of Tesla’s vehicles. Pickups have become more popular lately — their share of the US light vehicle market increased to 17.5 percent in 2019, from just under 13 percent in 2012. They’re also the fastest-growing auto segment in the US. That makes Tesla’s entry into pickups sensible, analysts say. Another pickup perk: pricing. Pickups tend to be expensive. E

Rabbit shows off the AI agent it should have launched with

is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020. The Humane AI Pin has collapsed, but Rabbit is still kicking. The company published a blog post and video today showing off a “generalist Android agent,” slowly controlling apps on a tablet in much the same way that Rabbit claimed its R1 device would over a year ago. (It couldn’t, and can’t.) The work builds on LAM Playground, a “generalist web agent” Rabb

Brand-new women’s focused Swizzle Ventures skyrockets past its fundraising target

Swizzle Ventures has closed its Fund I at $6.6 million, bypassing its initial $3 million target, Jessica Kamada, the firm’s founder, told TechCrunch. Back in December, TechCrunch reported that the firm, which quietly launched in 2023, was raising and has already bypassed $5 million, per its SEC filing. The thesis of Fund I will focus on women’s health and wealth, touching upon issues such as caregiving and finances. Kamada told TechCrunch that 70% of the fund’s LPs are women and 50% are expert

Twitch community guideline violations will now disappear from accounts after a set time

Twitch has rolled out a number of changes to its violation enforcement system. The biggest change is that now infractions will disappear from an account “after a set amount of time.” This is great news for long-time creators, as minor violations stacked. This led to folks getting suspended as these smaller infractions piled up. The platform says that most minor infractions, like cheating in an online game, will expire after 90 days. More serious violations, like participating in hateful conduct

The best secure browsers for privacy in 2025: Expert tested

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

The best iPads of 2025: Expert tested and reviewed

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

The best speakers for vinyl in 2025: Expert recommended

'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean? ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing. When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or

The best TV antenna of 2025: Expert tested

If you love having the option of live TV but don't need (or want) to shell out for expensive premium cable packages, basic TV antennas are a great and low-cost way to watch news, sports, and other live events. Contrary to popular belief, there are a bunch of OTA (over-the-air) TV channels that you can access for free with a solid antenna, though streaming services would love to tell you otherwise. OTA TV offers a wider variety of choices than you might remember if you haven't used a rabbit-ear