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I tested this 9-in-1 off-grid portable power station that claims a 17-year lifespan - here's my verdict

'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

Netflix just revealed AI-generated footage in a popular show for the first time - did you spot it?

Netflix Without realizing it, you may have already seen Netflix's first foray into AI-generated content. In its latest company earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos revealed that AI created part of a scene of a building collapsing in the new Netflix series The Eternaut, a post-apocalyptic drama about an alien invasion in Argentina. Also: I spoke with an AI version of myself, thanks to Hume's free tool - how to try it Sarandos framed the usage of generative AI tools as "an incredible opp

Comparison of MGR, SunView, OpenWindows and X11R6 (2022)

My general vintage computing projects, mostly microcomputers, 6502, PalmOS, 68K/Power Mac and Unix workstations, but that's not all you'll see. While over the decades I've written for publications likeand, these articles are all original and just for you. My promise: No AI-generated article text, ever. All em-dashes are intentional and inserted by hand. Be kind, REWIND and PLAY.Old VCR is advertisement- and donation-funded, and what I get goes to maintaining the hardware here at Floodgap. I don'

Make Map Icons with Orthographic Projections

An orthographic projection is the best approximation of a view of the earth from space. It’s an azimuthal perspective projection which creates an illusion of a three-dimensional globe. It’s an old projection, believed to have first been developed by the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks. In our time this perspective feels natural since our culture has assimilated how our planet looks from a spacecraft. A good example is Earth’s first portrait, taken from Apollo 8 mission astronauts in 1968: This pr

Amazon and the "Profitless Business Model" Fallacy

[DISCLOSURE: As always when I write about Amazon, I'll note I worked there from 1997-2004 and that I still own some shares in the company. I still have many friends who work there, though I have no more idea what Amazon is working on now than any of you in the public.] With every quarterly earnings call, my Twitter feed lights up with jokes about how Amazon continues to grow its revenue and make no profits and how trusting investors continue to rewards the company for it. The apotheosis of that

Jqfmt like gofmt, but for jq

Description I'm frequently passed long shell one-liners that require some visual inspection before running. These days, there's about as much jq in that one-liner as there is bash. I wrote jqfmt to help add line breaks in sensible locations while reading (or writing!) jq. At time of initial development, I naturally turned to https://github.com/itchyny/gojq expecting to be able to generate and walk a syntax tree—but gojq didn't seem to provide an AST that could be "walked," and it doesn't expor

TrackWeight: Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a digital weighing scale

TrackWeight Turn your MacBook's trackpad into a precise digital weighing scale TrackWeight is a macOS application that transforms your MacBook's trackpad into an accurate weighing scale by leveraging the Force Touch pressure sensors built into modern MacBook trackpads. IMG_7303.mov To use it yourself: Open the scale Rest your finger on the trackpad While maintaining finger contact, put your object on the trackpad Try to put as little pressure on the trackpad while still maintaining contact.

Oz Perkins’ Newest Movie, ‘Keeper,’ Looks Like More Delicious Nightmare Fodder

Oz Perkins has another movie coming out already? He must not sleep much—payback for all the frights he’s implanted into the brains of people who’ve watched his films, including The Monkey and Longlegs. His latest, Keeper, hits theaters this fall and looks to continue the trend, if this first teaser is anything to go by. Very simple yet very eerie (and a bit easier to follow than the deliberately obscure Longlegs marketing was), Keeper shows us a succession of women. They’re smiling at the camer

Apple Only Has One Hope for a Foldable iPhone that Beats Samsung

Next year, Apple will enter the foldable phone market, and after more than seven years of mainstream folding devices, its debut won’t be light on competition. As noted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is no stranger to tough competitors, but its folding phone launch is shaping up to be a little different. “When the company introduces its first foldable iPhone at the end of next year, it will be entering a product category that’s already seven years old—pioneered and dominated by its biggest ha

I Tried the Nothing Phone 3 and It Definitely Didn't Live Up to the Hype

Nothing made things difficult for itself by calling its latest phone its first "true flagship." It suggests that it is a contender to premium phones such as the iPhone 16 Pro or the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it simply isn't. Instead it's a solid midranger, offering decent performance and a host of quirky features for a relatively affordable price. At $799 (£799), the Nothing Phone 3 is the most expensive phone the company has made, and it backs this up with a more potent processor, better cameras a

Experimental surgery performed by AI-driven surgical robot

Intuitive Surgical, an American biotechnology company, introduced DaVinci surgical robots in the late 1990s, and they became groundbreaking teleoperation equipment. Expert surgeons could operate on patients remotely, manipulating the robotic arms and their surgical tools based on a video feed from DaVinci’s built-in cameras and endoscopes. Now, John Hopkins University researchers put a ChatGPT-like AI in charge of a DaVinci robot and taught it to perform a gallbladder-removal surgery. Kuka sur

What’s Behind Gen Z’s Sex Recession?

Zoë Schiffer: Yeah, fascinating. So let's talk about the rest of the internet outside the social media, because Gen Z is the first generation that has always known a world where porn and nudes are readily available online in just a few clicks. And I'm curious, how has that impacted them? Carter Sherman: What's really interesting about porn is when I was going into this book, I thought I would find a diverse array of beliefs about it. I thought that people on the right would be more opposed to i

OpenAI's New CEO of Applications Strikes Hyper-Optimistic Tone in First Memo to Staff

OpenAI’s incoming CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, sent her first note to staff on Monday, telling employees the tools they’re developing “will unlock more opportunities for more people than any other technology in history.” “If we get this right, AI can give everyone more power than ever,” Simo wrote, striking a hyper-optimistic tone, according to a copy of the memo viewed by WIRED. “But I also realize those opportunities won’t magically appear on their own.” Simo previously worked as the CEO

Chrome will let you switch between personal and work accounts on iOS

is a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor. Google is introducing the option to easily switch between personal and work profiles in its Chrome browser on iOS, with data kept separate between the two. The new option is part of Google’s enterprise software package, and doesn’t allow non-enterprise users to switch freely between two Google accounts in the browser. Companies that adopt Chrome Enterprise can let employees

OpenAI says ChatGPT users send over 2.5 billion prompts every day

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. OpenAI’s ChatGPT sees more than 2.5 billion requests daily, with 330 million from users based in the US, according to data obtained by Axios. The data suggests that ChatGPT users send over 912.5 billion requests to the AI chatbot each year. Although ChatGPT still has a way to go to catch up to Google’s 5 trillion annual searches, its rapid growth s

Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX confirms $44M stolen during hack

India’s largest crypto exchange CoinDCX has confirmed that one of its internal operational accounts was compromised in a recent security breach, allowing the hackers to make off with millions in crypto. On Saturday, CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta disclosed in a post on X that an internal account “used only for liquidity provisioning on a partner exchange” was compromised during the hack. The executive assured that the incident did not affect customer funds and that all its customer asse

Figma looks to raise nearly $1B as it kicks off its IPO roadshow

In Brief Enterprise design startup Figma has entered the next step of its IPO journey. Figma announced Monday it is kicking off its IPO roadshow. The company plans to offer more than 36 million shares of class A stock that are expected to be priced between $25 and $28 a share. This offering includes a mix of primary and secondary shares and would allow the company to raise around $1 billion. The company is expected to price its IPO the week of July 28. If the company prices its shares in the

Chrome for iOS makes it easier to switch between work and personal Google accounts

Google announced Monday that it’s introducing a new feature that lets iOS users easily switch between work and personal Google accounts in Chrome. Previously, iOS users had to completely sign out of a Google account and then log in with another, and repeat this process every time they want to access a different account. “People often use their mobile device for both work and personal tasks, requiring them to sign in and out with different Google accounts,” the company wrote in a blog post. “To

Figma’s Dylan Field will cash out about $60M in IPO, with Index, Kleiner, Greylock, Sequoia all selling, too

When Figma announced its initial hoped-for price range on Monday ($25-$28), it also revealed an unusual decision for its highly anticipated IPO. It will allow existing shareholders to sell more shares than the company plans to sell, by a high ratio. The company plans to offer about 12.5 million shares. Yet existing shareholders will be allowed to cash out of nearly 24.7 million shares, it said. In addition, should this IPO be as hot as everyone thinks it will be, existing shareholders will get

Figma IPO could value design software maker at $16 billion

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma Inc., after the morning sessions at the Allen & Co. Media and Technology Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 11, 2024. Design software company Figma on Monday published an updated prospectus for its initial public offering. The company said it expects to sell about 37 million shares at $25 to $28 each. That would generate as much as $1 billion in proceeds, between the company and selling shareholders. The IPO could value Figma, led by co-founder D

PDFgear Scan is an AI-powered, feature-packed scanning app – and it’s completely free

We don’t talk enough about the amount of paperwork we come across every day. From essential bank documents, work contracts, tax notices, and bills to invoices, application forms, IDs, letters, and more, keeping everything organized can be a chore. And even more so if there’s a mix of physical and digital paperwork to deal with. Scanning your documents and organizing them digitally is a smart idea. But while there are plenty of scanner apps, any features you might need beyond basic scanning are

Google is playing with an energetic new Gemini animation (APK teardown)

AssembleDebug / Android Authority TL;DR As part of its big Material 3 Expressive overhaul, Google’s been rethinking its approach to the Gemini overlay. Instead of just gently sliding onto screen, Google’s been working to give Gemini a little bouncy momentum. The latest version of this animation we’ve uncovered is easily the most dynamic yet. Change is coming to Google’s Android software, and that change’s name is Material 3 Expressive. The company’s latest design language is being implemente

Google is testing a cooler, darker design for Gemini Live’s overlay (APK teardown)

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing a visual refresh for Gemini Live’s compact overlay in the latest app beta. The redesigned UI includes rounded corners, smaller icons, and a dark background. The corner widget has also been updated to be circular with a more vibrant waveform. Google isn’t done refining the Gemini Live experience. Following last month’s reveal of a more compact overlay interface, we’ve now uncovered some potential visual updates to that same UI. In our

This transforming, dual-screened Android console is the most interesting handheld I’ve ever tested

Nick Fernandez / Android Authority It isn’t often that something entirely new crops up in the gaming space. Nintendo is the only player still innovating when it comes to handhelds, but even then the evolution from the Wii U in 2012 to the Nintendo Switch 2 released just a few months ago feels far more iterative than say, the leap from the Game Boy to the Nintendo DS. Then there’s the ONEXSUGAR SUGAR 1. With two screens, folding controllers, and more power than nearly any other Android gaming h

The fan-made mod of the original Fallout game has a real trailer and it looks sick

Fallout: Bakersfield is a fan-made mod of the 1990s original that's been on our radar for a few years. We got a little teaser back in 2022 , but it's been radio silence since then. Now there's an actual trailer filled with gameplay footage and it looks pretty nifty. Developer Alexander "Red888guns" Berezin is the brains behind the project and he used the GZDoom engine to recreate the ghoul city of Necropolis from Fallout 1 as an FPS that resembles the newer games. The art style is pretty incred

ExpressVPN bug leaked user IPs in Remote Desktop sessions

ExpressVPN has fixed a flaw in its Windows client that caused Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) traffic to bypass the virtual private network (VPN) tunnel, exposing the users' real IP addresses. One of the key premises of a VPN is masking a user's IP address, allowing users to stay anonymous online, and in some cases, bypass censorship. Failing to do so is a severe technical failure for a VPN product. ExpressVPN is a leading VPN service provider, consistently rated among the top VPN services, and

Is ChatGPT down? You're not alone. Here's what OpenAI is saying

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET If you're running into problems with ChatGPT this morning, you're not alone. Just after 8:30 a.m. ET, reports began surfacing that paid users were experiencing quite a few errors when trying to converse with the chatbot. In some cases, ChatGPT responds with an error message; in others, it doesn't respond at all. OpenAI confirmed the issue The outage‑tracking website DownDetector showed a spike in reports about that time. Reports were declining but still present b

8 ways I quickly leveled up my Linux skills - and you can too

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET When I first started using Linux, I was thrown to the wolves. I unwittingly installed Linux over Windows and, at the time, couldn't afford to purchase a new Windows license. Because of that, it was sink or swim. I decided to swim. Within a week or so, I felt comfortable with the OS, but I wanted more, so I spent the time learning the ins and outs of Linux, and look at me now. Also: This lightweight Linux distro makes switching from Windows 10 easy You might be th

Tired of AI images online? This search engine lets you hide them from results now

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused browser and search engine, has released a new setting on its search engine that allows users to hide AI-generated images. "Our philosophy about AI features is 'private, useful, and optional.' Our goal is to help you find what you're looking for. You should decide for yourself how much AI you want in your life – or if you want any at all," the company said on X last week. Also: I test AI tools for a living. Here are 3 image generator

Need a new laptop for the office? Save $500 on the Dell 16 Plus and improve your workflow

'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