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5 Chromecast features that maximize your TV's potential (and a smart home hack)

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Since 2014, Google's Chromecast has been an affordable means for helping viewers turn their older model TVs into smart TVs, allowing them to stream content from their phones, tablets, and computers to a bigger screen. Also: Is your Roku TV spying on you? Probably, but here's how to put an end to it Alas, the era of the Chromecast has come to an end. Google is replacing it with the Google TV Streamer, promising a faster processor, Thread and Matter integration, and the ability

Canada says Salt Typhoon hacked telecom firm via Cisco flaw

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and the FBI confirm that the Chinese state-sponsored 'Salt Typhoon' hacking group is also targeting Canadian telecommunication firms, breaching a telecom provider in February. During the February 2025 incident, Salt Typhoon exploited the CVE-2023-20198 flaw, a critical Cisco IOS XE vulnerability allowing remote, unauthenticated attackers to create arbitrary accounts and gain admin-level privileges. The flaw was first disclosed in October 2023, when it was

Here’s Why Jony Ive and OpenAI Pulled All the Promos for Their AI Doohickey

Over the weekend, OpenAI removed all promo materials related to its $6.5 billion buddy-buddy partnership with Apple design legend Jony Ive and their still unannounced AI-centric device. This wasn’t a falling out between the two titans in tech, but rather the result of something altogether stranger. The nixed webpages and videos are due to a trademark lawsuit filed by a separate startup, iyO, which is seemingly miffed about the companies names being a single letter apart. On July 20, California

Topics: device io ive iyo openai

This Magnetic 10000mAh Power Bank Is 88% Off, Amazon Holds a Final Clearance Sale

Power banks are a great method of keeping your devices charged on the go, but they typically come with the hassle of cables which can be a pain and a drag. The ultimate luxury is to have a power bank that is Magsafe compliant so that you can wirelessly charge your devices without having to use cables. That is exactly what this magnetic portable charger does—and it is currently on sale for a very reasonable price. It also has two built-in cables, a USB-A and a USB-C ports so that you can charge

How MacOS Tahoe's killer new feature could make Docker feel obsolete

Apple / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Apple has a lot of fancy new tricks up its sleeve for the next iteration of MacOS. There's the new UI (glassy and classy), the extra AI bits, performance improvements, and more. But there's one new feature that may or may not interest the average user. That feature is all about containers. Think of containers like this: an isolated, lightweight package that contains the application code, dependencies, and libraries necessary to run in an isolated environme

Trump Mobile promise telehealth and roadside perks, but is it worth the cost?

From businessman to politician, and now to wireless service provider? Coming way out of left field, it seems the Trump Organization is now looking to leverage the Trump name to bring phone service to its fan base. According to the Trump Organization, the company won’t directly operate Trump Mobile and is instead licensing the rights to an unnamed third party. Trump Mobile will offer just one plan, dubbed the 47 Plan, as a not-so-subtle nod to Trump’s current presidential term. The company will

Every Parent Should Know These 3 iPhone and iPad Parental Controls

As a parent of three young kids with limited screen time, the prospect of handing them their very own iPad or iPhone sends me into an anxiety-induced spiral. The prospect of having to micromanage screen time (and the overstimulated meltdowns that follow), plus trying to protect them on social media and against all the other horrors lurking online, is enough to make me want to swear off screens altogether. But I'm also a realist and know I can't fend off screens forever. In fact, their peak devic

This Case Forced Me to Completely Rethink How I Handle the Switch 2

2025 The Nintendo Switch 2 is currently the featherweight champion of gaming handhelds—though largely because nobody can enter its weight class. No other device of its size—whether it’s a handheld PC or another retro device—can slip so easily into a backpack without weighing you down, like you’re lugging a sack of bricks around through every train station and airport terminal. That slim design comes with its own heap of drawbacks. The Switch 2 is a thin device with narrow edges that tends to d

How a data center company uses stranded renewable energy

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy, and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. John Belizaire says he has a secret hiding in plain sight. But before revealing it, the CEO of Soluna, a green data center development firm headquartered in Albany, New York, asks people to picture the last time they drove through a gusty stretch of countryside and saw wind turbines in the distance. But when the

uBlock Origin Lite Beta for Safari iOS

Installing and testing beta apps Each build is available to test for up to 90 days, starting from the day the developer uploads their build. You can see how many days you have left for testing under the app name in TestFlight. TestFlight will notify you each time a new build is available and will include instructions on what you need to test. Alternatively, with TestFlight 3 or later, you can turn on automatic updates to have the latest beta builds install automatically. When the testing perio

iOS 26 to let third-party apps build their own AirDrop alternative

Apple’s tight grip on local wireless sharing is finally loosening, even if rather reactively. With iOS 26, developers are getting a new API that allows third-party apps to discover and connect nearby devices over Wi-Fi, without needing an internet connection. Here’s how it’ll work. Wi-Fi Aware As observed by iHelpBR, the core of this news boils down to Wi-Fi Aware, which will allow nearby devices to find each other and create a direct peer-to-peer connection over Wi-Fi, even when they’re not o

I gave up my iPhone for dumbphone with no apps. A month later, here's my take

ZDNET's key takeaways The Light Phone 3 is on pre-order with support from many major carriers for $699. It's setting a new standard for simplified phones by combining a sleek, minimal product with a focused purpose. I wish the battery lasted longer, there are still some features in development, and it's not exactly cheap. View now at The Light Phone Much attention has been paid to the idea of a "dumbphone." We've all had the thought: how liberating it would be to ditch the smartphone forever,

Why I recommend this Lenovo tablet over competing models that cost twice the price

ZDNET's key takeaways The Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 is available now for $549. It features a gorgeous display, dual USB-C ports, and excellent performance with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. If you're looking for a big-screen tablet with a stylus, you'll likely find the eight-inch screen too small. $449.99 at Lenovo The Legion Tab Gen 3 joins Lenovo's gaming lineup as a slim and light eight-inch Android tablet with a brilliant 2.5K, 165Hz display, and 12GB of RAM. These specs, combined wit

Your Android phone is getting a big security upgrade for free - these Pixel models included

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Mobile devices are always a tempting target for cybercriminals. That's true not just for consumers but for companies. According to Google, more than half of organizations have pointed to smartphones as their most exposed endpoint, and data breaches often occur from improper use of these devices. In a blog post released earlier this month, Google describes the latest protections available with its Android Enterprise platform, which rolls out to most Android 16-compatible handset

Will Android ‘App Cast’ let you stream apps from device to device? (APK teardown)

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority TL;DR Google Play Services shows evidence of an in-development “App Cast” tool. While its full functionality is unclear, it appears able to gather info about remote Android devices and access their installed apps. One possibility could be the ability to remotely stream apps from one Android device to another. Google’s always working on something new for Android, and we spend a fair amount of time digging through app and system updates in the hope of getting

Steam adds more accessibility features

Steam has introduced a new batch of features for improved accessibility in the latest beta of the gaming client. The platform is adding a sliding scale for adjusting UI size, a high contrast mode to make text and buttons more distinct from the background, and a reduce motion setting to disable select animations and page transitions. These three features are available for devices running SteamOS and in Steam's Big Picture Mode, which displays a full-screen user interface for easier legibility. I

Lifetime Subscription to Ad Blocker AdGuard Is Now Near-Zero in Price, Over 90% Off With Code

If you could wave a magic wand and eliminate all ads from your online browsing — pop-ups, banners, videos, all of them — would you? Of course you would — everybody hates intrusive online ads, and they’re getting more clever and harder to elude or close every day. Thankfully, the only magic wand you need to banish them forever is a lifetime subscription to AdGuard’s Family Plan, and the only magic word you need is FAMPLAN, the code you use at checkout to give you this sweet deal for just $16 at

NFC Release 15 quadruples contactless range for faster, easier tap-to-pay

Why it matters: If you get anxiety about trying to line your device up with a terminal to make a contactless payment, here's some good news: the NFC Forum has announced that version 15 of the standard is quadrupling the distance of contactless connections, from the current 0.5 cm (0.19 inches) to 2 cm (0.78 inches). Anyone who knows the struggle of trying to line up a device, especially a smartwatch, with a payment terminal will be relieved to know that the range, also known as the operating vo

Upcoming NFC Release 15 quadruples contactless range, making tap-to-pay faster and easier

Why it matters: If you get anxiety about trying to line your device up with a terminal to make a contactless payment, here's some good news: the NFC Forum has announced that version 15 of the standard is quadrupling the distance of contactless connections, from the current 0.5 cm (0.19 inches) to 2 cm (0.78 inches). Anyone who knows the struggle of trying to line up a device, especially a smartwatch, with a payment terminal will be relieved to know that the range, also known as the operating vo

This Lenovo laptop helped clean up my messy photo library - and it's on sale

ZDNET's key takeaways The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is available now for $1,299 for the 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD configuration. It pairs a ton of customizable features with a nice display, surprisingly beefy speakers, and a marathon battery. A few physical design choices might be of concern for some users, and I wish it had an OLED. View now at Best Buy View now at Lenovo more buying choices At Best Buy, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition is on sale for $1,100, a $300 discount. Lenovo a

Hot Octopuss Pulse Duo Review: Not for Penetration

I've heard a decent amount about sex toy brand Hot Octopuss from my male friends, but it wasn’t until the Pulse Duo arrived on my doorstep that I had my first experience with its products. I was excited to give it a try because I love penis toys that both partners can enjoy. The Pulse Duo isn’t a cock ring—at least not in the traditional sense—it does help produce longer and stronger erections. More of a sleeve than a ring, the person with the penis wears the Pulse Duo while dry humping or gyra

Ring Alarm 14-Piece Kit Drops to Black Friday Low, Amazon Clears Stock for Non-Prime Members

When it comes to home security devices, certain items aren’t frequently discounted that deeply. The Ring Alarm 14-piece kit is one of the hard-to-find deals, and today it’s priced about as low as Black Friday last year – something we haven’t witnessed since then. What’s making this deal even better is that, unlike with Prime Day, you don’t need a Prime membership in order to take advantage. Anyone can take this deal, and it’s for the 14-piece set only and not smaller sets. Priced at $330, this

This 10,000mAh 22.5W Fast Charging Power Bank Is 88% Off, Now Almost Free on Amazon

In today’s world, having a reliable portable charger is essential. Whether you’re traveling, working remotely or simply out and about, a dead phone or tablet can quickly turn into a major inconvenience. The good news is that fast charging power banks have become the standard… and with the latest deals on Amazon, getting your hands on a high-quality model doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, today there is a deal so phenomenal that Amazon might not be making any money off it: The 10000mAh 22

Devil May Cry and the early Mortal Kombat games join GOG’s Preservation Program

GOG’s Preservation Program launched in late 2024 and the number of included games has doubled since the initial wave, currently sitting at 183. The latest headline-grabbing additions are the first four mainline Devil May Cry games and Mortal Kombat 1+2+3. Devil May Cry: HD Collection was first released in 2012 and includes the first three entries in Capcom’s enduring action series, all playable in 1080p/60fps (a big deal at the time). Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, which celebrates its 10th

Anthropic now lets developers use Claude Code with any remote MCP server

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET Anthropic pioneered the Model Context Protocol (MCP) open standard for connecting AI assistants and agents to data systems seamlessly and securely. Since MCP's introduction last year, the standard has become increasingly adopted across the industry, including by Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google. Now, the company is expanding capabilities for developers. Claude Code support for remote MCP On Wednesday, Anthropic announced that it would allow users to integrate Claude Code with

NFC is getting a range boost

The next version of the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard aims to make it easier to make payments, pair devices, and unlock doors using your phone or smartwatch. The most notable improvement is a boost to the distance of contactless connections from 0.5cm to 2cm, extending the range by x4. The NFC Release 15 standard update means NFC chips shouldn’t need to be as precisely aligned with terminals to register a connection, which is especially beneficial for users who have to fumble with sma

World’s Slimmest 10000mAh Charger Drops to Record Low, Now Almost Free on Amazon

Nothing is more frustrating than bulky power banks that take up too much space in your bag and fail to charge your devices quickly. If you’ve ever struggled with this common annoyance, it’s time to meet a solution that’s both compact and powerful. While the INIU brand may not be familiar to everyone, it goes without saying that this product has captured the hearts of millions: With an astonishing more than 78,000 reviews on Amazon and more than 60,000 of which being five-star reviews, the INUI

This Anker Solix C300 Portable Power Station Drops to a New Record Low, Limited Stock Before Prime Day

If you love the great outdoors but also like to know you’ve got enough power on your phone for all of the modern conveniences, then you’ll probably want a good bit of extra power. While you could go for a power bank of some kind, if you’re really committed, then you’re going to want to go for a portable power station. See at Amazon The good news is that, while many of these are incredibly pricey, you can still get a lot of use out of the more affordable models, and better yet, they can get som

I still recommend this OnePlus Watch over competing Androids - especially at this price

Kerry Wan/ZDNET Enter the code JUNE25 at OnePlus' website to save $70 on the OnePlus Watch 2. When OnePlus announced the OnePlus Watch in 2021, I immediately placed an order because the hardware looked compelling and was priced at $159. After a few weeks, I returned the device due to its sheer lack of offering anything of value. The original OnePlus Watch was powered by the Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), which was perfectly fine, as many smartwatches run lean and mean. However, last year'