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Scientists Baffled by "Alien Mineral" That Acts in a Weird Way When Heated Up

Scientists Baffled by "Alien Mineral" That Acts in a Weird Way When Heated Up There is quite literally nothing like this on Earth. Alien Crystals A strange mineral found in a meteorite does not behave like anything on Earth when it's heated. In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers detailed the incredible properties of their sample of silica tridymite, an extraterrestrial form of silicon dioxide that was taken f

Seagate spins up a raid on a counterfeit hard drive workshop

According to German news outlet Heise, notable progress has been made regarding the counterfeit Seagate hard drive case. Just like something out of an action movie, security teams from Seagate's Singapore and Malaysian offices, in conjunction with local Malaysian authorities, conducted a raid on a warehouse in May that was engaged in cooking up counterfeit Seagate hard drives, situated outside Kuala Lumpur. During the raid, authorities reportedly uncovered approximately 700 counterfeit Seagate

I brought Samsung's rugged Galaxy tablet on a hiking trip, and it weathered everything

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro ZDNET's key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro is available starting at $659 for the 128GB version, with 5G models starting at $769. It's an exceptionally rugged tablet with removable dual batteries and software updates for eight years. RAM is a bit limited at 6GB, and the included S Pen doesn't support wireless Bluetooth functions. View now at Samsung Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium bro

Gear News of the Week: A New Privacy Phone Arrives, and Samsung Has a $30K 115-Inch Micro RGB TV

There's a new smartphone promising to protect your privacy: the Up Phone, from a company called Unplugged. Except it's not new. Unplugged has been around for a few years—the company was cofounded by Erik Prince, the founder of private military company Blackwater—and it originally announced the Up Phone in 2023. But this week, the company claims it's “relaunching” the phone, under new leadership. Like the original, the Up Phone's UnpluggedOS (formerly LibertOS) is built on the Android Open Sourc

Your iPhone battery can last longer with this new iOS 26 feature

Battery life is easily one of the iPhone’s most important features. Whether you’re planning to buy the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air, the battery beast iPhone 17 Pro Max, or hold on to your current model, iOS 26 has a new feature coming that can make your iPhone’s battery last longer: Adaptive Power. Adaptive Power is a new iOS 26 setting to extend battery life If your iPhone battery is getting low, iOS has long offered Low Power Mode as a helpful tool. While I’ve heard of some users keeping Low P

Imagen 4 is now generally available

We're excited to announce that Imagen 4, our most advanced text-to-image model, is now generally available in the Gemini API and Google AI Studio. This release marks a significant step forward in text-to-image generation quality, with substantial improvements in text rendering over our previous models. The Imagen 4 family: A model for your creative needs In addition, we're thrilled to launch Imagen 4 Fast, our new model built for speed, which is now available alongside the powerful Imagen 4

The SSD gadget that keeps my private data secure (while making me feel like James Bond)

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET Most of us already know that carrying unencrypted data on portable drives is a bad idea. The consequences of that data falling into the wrong hands can range from embarrassing to damaging to potentially opening up you or your company to legal headaches. But encrypting data on external drives can also be a pain. If you have to run separate applications, things quickly become a big hassle, and that's how data gets left unencrypted. Also: 10 tiny tools I carry with m

Topics: data drive like ssd use

I tested this fully-equipped Samsung tablet that makes the Ultra model look bad

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro ZDNET's key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro is available starting at $659 for the 128GB version, with 5G models starting at $769. It's an exceptionally rugged tablet with removable dual batteries and software updates for eight years. RAM is a bit limited at 6GB, and the included S Pen doesn't support wireless Bluetooth functions. View now at Samsung Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium bro

Indigenous knowledge meets artificial intelligence

Suzanne Kite’s AI art installations, for example, model a Lakota framework of data sovereignty: intelligence that emerges only through reciprocal, consensual interaction. Unlike systems that assume user consent via opaque terms of service, her kinetic machines require the viewer’s physical presence—and give something back in return. “It’s my data. It’s my training set. I know exactly what I did to train it. It’s not a large model but a small and intimate one,” Kite says. “I’m not particularly i

I've tested several Android tablets for work travel - why I recommend this Samsung the most

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro ZDNET's key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro is available starting at $659 for the 128GB version, with 5G models starting at $769. It's an exceptionally rugged tablet with removable dual batteries and software updates for eight years. RAM is a bit limited at 6GB, and the included S Pen doesn't support wireless Bluetooth functions. View now at Samsung Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium bro

Looking for More iPhone Battery Life? Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Should Provide a Boost

People who have installed the latest iOS 26 public beta or developer beta are discovering a simple switch that just might deliver long-term iPhone benefits -- and it's an Apple Intelligence feature of all things. Adaptive Power is an unobtrusive feature tucked a couple of layers deep into the Battery settings that uses AI to extend battery life when usage is higher than normal. See also: Adaptive Power in iOS 26 Could Save the iPhone 17 Air From This Major Pitfall Currently, the iPhone uses as

Uber considers insurance payouts for delays, canceled rides, missed flights, more

Uber is inquiring select Brazilian customers on a series of new services, including multiple forms of insurance. Here are the details. Insurance may cover delays and even missed flights If you’ve ever had to cancel an Uber ride request, you know that you might have incurred a cancellation fee, which Uber says goes to the driver to make up for gas and time spent on the way to pick you up. But you’ve probably also been in the opposite situation, whether because the driver canceled halfway to pi

Watch Our Livestream Replay: What GPT-5 Means for ChatGPT Users

Is the new GPT-5 model as big of an upgrade as OpenAI claims? Why are users complaining? And what do the changes actually mean for ChatGPT users? WIRED reporters have been testing how GPT-5’s ability to code, write, and perform other tasks compares to past releases. At the livestream on August 14, our expert panel answered your questions about GPT-5 and the future of generative AI. Watch the replay of the subscriber-only livestream below. On the panel: You can check out past livestreams on all

Premier League Soccer: Livestream Every Game of the 2025-26 Season From Anywhere

The world's most-watched soccer league returns this week with what looks set to be the most competitive English Premier League season in recent memory. Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch Premier League games as they happen, wherever you are in the world, and how to use a VPN if it's not available where you are. Despite ending last season with a clear 10-point lead, Liverpool comes into this new campaign with a significantly overhauled squad. Big-money summ

One of the Most Prolific VR Headset Makers (Not Meta) Now Has Smart Glasses (Not Ray-Bans)

XR, or extended reality, headsets are on the outs, but smart glasses are eating more and more of what was once VR’s slice of the face-mounted wearables pie. HTC, one of the few lingering pioneers of VR headsets with its Vive series, couldn’t stand up to Meta’s Quest for cheap consumer virtual reality, but it may be able to shoulder in some room with a new pair of smart glasses that goes tit for tat with Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley HSTN smart eyewear. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses have proved pop

I brought Samsung's new rugged tablet on a mountain lake trek - here's how it fared

Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro ZDNET's key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro is available starting at $659 for the 128GB version, with 5G models starting at $769. It's an exceptionally rugged tablet with removable dual batteries and software updates for eight years. RAM is a bit limited at 6GB, and the included S Pen doesn't support wireless Bluetooth functions. View now at Samsung Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium bro

New Brain Interface Interprets Inner Monologues With Startling Accuracy

Scientists can now decipher brain activity related to the silent inner monologue in people’s heads with up to 74% accuracy, according to a new study. In new research published today in Cell, scientists from Stanford University decoded imagined words from four participants with severe paralysis due to ALS or brainstem stroke. Aside from being absolutely wild, the findings could help people who are unable to speak communicate more easily using brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the researchers say

Buzzy AI startup Multiverse creates two of the smallest high-performing models ever

One of Europe’s most prominent AI startups has released two AI models that are so tiny, they have named them after a chicken’s brain and a fly’s brain. Multiverse Computing claims these are the world’s smallest models that are still high-performing and can handle chat, speech, and even reasoning in one case. These new tiny models are intended to be embedded into Internet of Things devices, as well as run locally on smartphones, tablets, and PCs. “We can compress the model so much that they ca

This SSD gadget locks prying eyes out and makes me feel like James Bond

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNET Most of us already know that carrying unencrypted data on portable drives is a bad idea. The consequences of that data falling into the wrong hands can range from embarrassing to damaging to potentially opening up you or your company to legal headaches. But encrypting data on external drives can also be a pain. If you have to run separate applications, things quickly become a big hassle, and that's how data gets left unencrypted. Also: 10 tiny tools I carry with m

Topics: data drive like ssd use

Thought HTC was dead? It just launched a surprisingly compelling Ray-Ban Meta rival

HTC Vive TL;DR HTC’s Vive division has announced a new pair of smart glasses called Eagle. These glasses come with a design similar to Ray-Ban Meta glasses but with better specifications and more colors. Unfortunately, HTC is limiting sales to Taiwan, unlike other Vive headsets that also sell globally. HTC has long given up on phones (except it hasn’t completely and still sells entry-level phones in certain markets). But its Vive division has continued to work on AR, VR, and XR headsets. It

Topics: ban glasses htc meta vive

HTC is getting in on AI glasses, too

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. With Meta, Google, Samsung, and maybe even Apple working on AI-powered glasses, smart spectacles are quickly becoming the hottest gadget in tech. Now, even HTC is jumping in on the trend with a new pair of Vive Eagle smart glasses that come with built-in speaker

Data brokers just gave us another reason to hate them

If you were holding a competition for the scummiest business model, then data brokers would be very high up the list. These companies make money by buying personal data from app and website owners and selling it to companies who want to spam us. A US Senator has now drawn attention to the latest sketchy practice by these companies: making it harder for us to opt out by hiding that option from search results … The dark world of data brokers Data brokers are companies that buy personal data fro

HTC takes on Meta with the Vive Eagle smart glasses

HTC is once again attacking the wearable space with a pair of new smart glasses, the company announced. The Vive Eagle is a rival to Meta's Ray-Ban glasses with a fashion-foward lightweight design, open ear audio, voice-activated AI and an ultra-wide AI-powered camera. They look promising, if a bit expensive, but will only be available in Taiwan to start with. The Taiwanese firm clearly noticed that Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have been a surprise hit. It's easy to see why — in our Engadget re

Topics: eagle htc meta ray vive

‘Weird Looking’ Otter Poo Reveals an Unexpected Role in Parasite Control

Receiving an unsolicited photo of worm-infested animal poop would make anyone cringe, unless you’re a parasite expert like Katrina Lohan. When a colleague sent her a snapshot of a watery pile of feces with a fire-engine red worm inside, she was instantly intrigued. “She sent this to me and was like, ‘I think this is a parasite, are you interested in studying river otters?’ And I was like, ‘Ooh, I think that’s a parasite too. And yes, I am,’” Lohan, a parasite ecologist who leads the Coastal Dis

Google just gave the Gemini Live app its biggest update yet - Android and iOS versions included

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's takeaways Gemini Live now works with Calendar, Maps, Keep, and Tasks. Update is rolling out to most Android and iOS users. It can add events, guide routes, and manage lists or notes. In May of this year, Google debuted Gemini Live with screen sharing and camera access for Android. Google has been slowly integrating the feature, which lets you ask Gemini about anything on your screen (or that you can see with your camera), into its suite of apps since Jun

Show HN: Real-time privacy protection for smart glasses

Privacy Infrastructure for Smart Glasses Build smart glasses apps without privacy concerns. Smart glasses apps face privacy hurdles. This real-time privacy filter sits between the camera and the app, automatically ensuring compliance. How it works: Replace your raw camera feed with our filtered stream. The filter processes live video, applies privacy protections, and outputs a compliant stream in real time. Use this processed stream for AI apps, social apps, or anything else. Features: Anon