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Move Over Telsa Powerwall. EcoFlow Claims This New Battery is Better for Disaster Prone Areas

Between floods, hurricanes, and brownouts, being a homeowner in states like California, Texas and Florida can make it challenging to keep the lights on. A whole-home battery backup is usually a good solution, letting you charge the battery while the power is on and then kick in when the power goes out. EcoFlow is the latest to enter this market with the Ocean Pro, which the company says is the first “full integrated, multi-source home energy system in the US.” What that means in simpler terms,

Nearly Half of Americans Budget Based on Vibes. Should You?

Your feelings about the economy can help you set a smarter money strategy. Massonstock/Getty Images Potential romantic partners. Your next vacation spot. Whether you should leave a party early. A vibe check can help you evaluate lots of things, including your money strategy. A June study by Intuit Credit Karma found that 44% of Americans surveyed have done "vibe-based budgeting." Gen Zers and millennials, in particular, are adjusting their spending and savings habits according to how they feel

EcoFlow says its new Ocean Pro is better than Tesla’s Powerwall

is a smart home reporter who’s been testing connected gadgets since 2013. Previously a contributor to Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, and US News. EcoFlow is powering up its first permanently installed whole-home energy solution for the US. The Ocean Pro system launches this week, featuring the new Ocean Pro Battery with 10kWh of storage expandable to 80kWh, and the Ocean Pro Inverter, which supports solar arrays of up to 40kWh. EcoFlow claims the system delivers 24kW of continuous power, enough to

Facebook creators who steal and repost videos could lose their monetization

Facebook is cracking down on accounts that steal and repost content from other users in an effort to reduce spam in feeds. Meta announced on Monday that creators who repeatedly reuse someone else’s videos, photos, or text posts will lose access to Facebook monetization programs for “a period of time,” and see reduced distribution of their posts on the platform. “Too often the same meme or video pops up repeatedly — sometimes from accounts pretending to be the creator and other times from differ

Google inks $3B deal to buy hydropower from Brookfield

As it races to build ever larger data centers, Google on Tuesday said it has agreed to pay more than $3 billion to source carbon-free hydropower from Brookfield Asset Management’s company, Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. The first contracts under the deal include 20-year power purchase agreements, the companies said, altogether amounting to $3 billion, for 670 megawatts of capacity from two hydropower plants in Pennsylvania. The deal is part of a broader framework agreement that will allo

WeTransfer says files not used to train AI after backlash

WeTransfer says files not used to train AI after backlash The firm has now updated its terms, saying it has "made the language easier to understand" to avoid confusion. A WeTransfer spokeswoman told BBC News: "We don't use machine learning or any form of AI to process content shared via WeTransfer, nor do we sell content or data to any third parties." The file sharing company had received lots of criticism from customers on social media after changing its terms of service, which some interpre

Cache Benchmarks

Cache Benchmarks These benchmarks measure thoughput, latency, and CPU cycles for Memcache, Redis, Valkey, Dragonfly, and Garnet. Persistance is turned off for all caches, no disk operations. All connections are local, UNIX named pipes. The hardware is an AWS c8g.8xlarge (32 core non-NUMA ARM64). The benchmarking tool is memtier_benchmark. Includes pipelining for 1, 10, 25, and 50. Each benchmark has 31 runs. About 15K total runs. The median of the 31 is used for graphing. Latency is mea

Crimson (YC X25) is hiring founding engineers in London

Crimson is the AI platform for high-stakes litigation. We're working with top law firms in the UK and US to streamline how complex disputes are run. Our platform drafts pleadings and submissions, analyzes judgments and orders, summarizes transcripts and locates key evidence in seconds. We're a team of three co-founders with deep technical and domain expertise. Our users are lawyers who trust us with their most sensitive case files. They care about security, accuracy, reliability and speed, and

Topics: ai end legal ll users

6 Best Android Tablets (2025), Tested and Reviewed

Other Tablets to Consider Photograph: Nena Farrell Google Pixel Tablet for $399: Google has a spotty history with Android tablets, going from the highs of the Nexus 7 to the, well, distinct averageness of the Pixel Tablet (7/10, WIRED Recommends). The 10.2-inch LCD screen is one of the highlights; the size and 439-gram weight are just right for carrying around, and Google’s fuss-free Android software is simple and logical. However, the Google Tensor G2 processor can get hot under strain, and t

AI’s giants want to take over the classroom

The companies could face an uphill battle. Right now, most of the public perceives AI’s use in the classroom as nothing short of ruinous—a surefire way to dampen critical thinking and hasten the decline of our collective attention span (a viral story from New York magazine, for example, described how easy it now is to coast through college thanks to constant access to ChatGPT). Amid that onslaught, AI companies insist that AI promises more individualized learning, faster and more creative lesso

AI text-to-speech programs could “unlearn” how to imitate certain people

AI companies generally keep a tight grip on their models to discourage misuse. For example, if you ask ChatGPT to give you someone’s phone number or instructions for doing something illegal, it will likely just tell you it cannot help. However, as many examples over time have shown, clever prompt engineering or model fine-tuning can sometimes get these models to say things they otherwise wouldn’t. The unwanted information may still be hiding somewhere inside the model so that it can be accessed

The Morning After: Switch 2 user accidentally banned after playing pre-owned game cards

Be extra careful where you buy your used Nintendo Switch game cards. A Switch 2 owner posted on Reddit about how their account was banned after downloading patches for a few Switch game cards they'd bought from Facebook Marketplace. The Switch 2 user contacted Nintendo support and discovered they were banned, but they provided proof of purchase and were unbanned shortly after. The Redditor said the “whole process was painless and fluid.” Nintendo Nintendo attaches unique codes to its Switch ga

OpenAI's ChatGPT-powered browser is codenamed 'Aura'

OpenAI is following Perplexity and is working on its own AI-powered browser codenamed "Aura." X user Tibor found references to "Aura," which is probably the codename for the new OpenAI browser. There are already mentions of "is Aura" ("mini-root," which is similar to checks for Android, iOS, or Electron/ChatGPT Windows desktop app), "is Aura Sidebar," and "in Aura" in the ChatGPT web app. Reuters previously reported that OpenAI is building a Chromium-based Chrome alternative that will use gen

I treated myself to this $129 pen, and it spoiled every other writing device for me

ZDNET's key takeaways The Ridge Bolt Pen's starting price of $59 is less than when I bought it, but it's still a fantastic gift for the writer in your life. It features a grippy design that makes handling a breeze, and the ink moves smoothly across paper. Of course, the one and only caveat with the pen is its price, but I've found it to be well worth it. View now at Amazon Various configurations of the Ridge Bolt Pen are on sale right now, including the 24K Gold finish, which sells for $89 (d

Don't plug these 7 appliances (including AC units) into extension cords - here's why

Maria Diaz/ZDNET Extension cords are generally a safe solution for running power to electronics that are too far from the nearest wall outlet. But the operative word here is "electronics," which is not as all-encompassing as some people might think. Appliances (like refrigerators and toaster ovens) are obviously electronic devices, but they're in a different class from most electronics because of the amperage demands they need to function. Why you shouldn't plug everything into an extension c

Interest Restarts for SAVE Student Loans on Aug. 1. Should You Switch to Another Payment Plan by Then?

Interest will restart for SAVE borrowers whose loans remain in a general forbearance on Aug. 1. Viva Tung/CNET Starting on Aug. 1, borrowers who are enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan will begin accruing interest charges on their loan balances. The Department of Education is encouraging borrowers to pick a new payment plan, but you also have the option to leave your loans where they are. The Department of Education "urges all borrowers in the SAVE plan to quickly transition to

This Guy Attached 21 Chef’s Knives to a Slicing Robot Arm to Determine Which One Is Best

After the fifth tomato, I had to know how my knife did. Without judgment, Heimendinger announced that it placed "second to last in the cohort." I felt responsibility for this knife, and a little embarrassment, until I remembered his knives came straight out of the box and into the testing process with an unblemished factory edge. My knife, on the other hand, had been in regular use in my test kitchen for more than six months receiving only the occasional honing. Plus, I noted protectively that t

Can Nextdoor overhaul itself to be useful?

is features writer with five years of experience covering the companies that shape technology and the people who use their tools. In an era of social media-based restaurant reviewers, local neighborhood influencers, and an urgent need for trustworthy on-the-ground reports during moments of crisis, a crowdsourced hyperlocal platform like Nextdoor seems like a no-brainer. Yet something wasn’t clicking. Some people were installing Nextdoor and finding a flood of irrelevant updates and notification

Reddit is rolling out age verification in the UK

Reddit users in the United Kingdom will now be blocked from accessing “certain mature content” unless they complete the platform’s new age verification process. Reddit announced on Monday that UK users will need to upload a selfie or a photo of their government ID in order to view content that’s restricted for under-18s by the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), including abusive, violent, and sexually explicit materials. The age verification process is performed by Persona, a third-party provider that

Amogy raises $80M to power ships and data centers with ammonia

From tariffs to the recent reconciliation bill, climate tech startups have been grappling with a rapidly changing landscape. Brooklyn-based startup Amogy has managed to avoid turbulence induced by U.S. politics by keeping its sights on more promising foreign markets. Amogy’s ammonia-to-power tech and its focus on Asian markets, including Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, has helped it land a fresh $23 million in funding. The round, which brings its most recent fundraise to $80 million, increas

Meta to spend hundreds of billions to build AI data centres

Meta to spend hundreds of billions to build AI data centres The company, which has made most of its money from online advertising, generated more than $160bn in revenue in 2024. Meta has invested heavily in efforts to develop what it called "superintelligence" - technology that it said could out-think the smartest humans. He said one of the sites would cover an area nearly the size of Manhattan (59.1 sq km/22.8 sq miles). The first multi-gigawatt data centre, called Prometheus, is expected t

Topics: ai centres data meta said

Samsung says S Pen could return to foldables after Galaxy Z Fold 7 snub

Alex Walker-Todd / Android Authority TL;DR Samsung confirms it’s working on new S Pen tech to possibly bring back support for its foldable phones. The statement comes from the executive director of Samsung’s mobile division. The company says it may bring back S Pen support for foldable phones once its new technology is fully ready, and if there’s enough consumer demand for the feature. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung’s thinnest and lightest foldable phone ever. But that sleek design came at t

I found a Lenovo laptop that I wouldn't mind ditching my MacBook Pro for - and it's on sale

ZDNET's key takeaways The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is on sale for about $1600. It's a lightweight laptop with a solid battery life and vibrant OLED display that is perfect for work and entertainment. However, its lightweight nature extends to its hardware, too, since it isn't a particularly powerful computer. View now at Lenovo View now at Best Buy more buying choices At Amazon, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition has been discounted by $160, dropping to $1,440. If there's one thing yo

Meta is reportedly using actual tents to build data centers

In Brief Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are in a hurry to build their superintelligence tech. The company has been poaching AI researchers, while Zuckerberg announced on Monday that Meta is building a 5-gigawatt data center called Hyperion. The urgency is palpable. As SemiAnalysis reported last week and Business Insider noted, Meta is so eager to boost its computing power that it’s literally erecting tents for temporary data center capacity while its facilities are still under construction. The

Clashes between web and X11 colors in the CSS color scheme

In computing, on the X Window System, X11 color names are represented in a simple text file, which maps certain strings to RGB color values. It was traditionally shipped with every X11 installation, hence the name, and is usually located in <X11root>/lib/X11/rgb.txt . The web colors list is descended from it but differs for certain color names.[1] Color names are not standardized by Xlib or the X11 protocol. The list does not show continuity either in selected color values or in color names, an

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