Latest Tech News

Stay updated with the latest in technology, AI, cybersecurity, and more

Filtered by: _________ Clear Filter

Hertz Deploys AI Scanner That's Charging Hundreds of Dollars for Tiny Scratches on Rental Cars

Car rental giant Hertz is facing some blowback as customers report that its "AI-powered" vehicle scanner charges them hundreds of dollars for tiny cosmetic dings. Earlier this summer, a Hertz customer in Atlanta was charged a jaw-dropping $440 for an inch-long bit of curb rash — a cosmetic scuff — on the wheel of his rental, as our sister site The Drive first reported. Out of that, $190 was earmarked for "processing" and "administrative" fees, which were automatically calculated by the rental c

Chinese Scientists Create Cyborg Bees That Can Be Controlled Like Drones for Undercover Military Missions

Chinese Scientists Create Cyborg Bees That Can Be Controlled Like Drones for Undercover Military Missions A tiny backpack relays commands straight to their brain. Seal Team Bee Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology have turned innocent bees into cyborgs that can be controlled via a 74-milligram insect brain controller. As the South China Morning Post reports, the controller pierces the bee's tiny brain with three needles and uses signals sent via electronic pulses to make it fly

A Dinosaur Appears to Have Died on the Exact Spot They Later Built a Dinosaur Museum, Burying Its Fossil Underneath It

In Denver, scientists uncovered a 67.5-million-year-old dinosaur fossil deep underground — and by chance, it just so happened to be buried underneath the parking lot of a museum that houses similar specimens. As the Denver Museum of Nature and Science explained in Catalyst, its online magazine, the ancient bone fragment was buried some 763 feet below the institution's parking lot, making it the oldest and deepest such fossil to be discovered within city limits. Beyond the coincidence of findin

Mysterious Signals From Deep Space Hint at Something Brutal, Scientists Say

Astronomers believe they've uncovered the source behind mysterious cosmic signals known as fast X-ray transients (FXTs) — and it adds a grim twist to our understanding of the death of stars. Right as a massive star explodes in a supernova, it unleashes a tremendously energetic stream of particles called a jet, producing a gamma ray burst — one of the most powerful explosions in the universe. The rest of the star, typically, collapses into a black hole. But a pair of new studies suggests that t

If You Still Vape, You Might Wanna Read This

Image by Getty / Futurism In the wake of a terrifying study about heavy metals in vape clouds, experts who have long warned about the potential dangers of vaping are again ringing alarm bells. Researchers from University of California, Davis recently found such high levels of heavy metals like lead and nickel when analyzing vape mist for a recent study that they thought their equipment had gone haywire. But the findings were very real. And while the precise long-term health implications of va

Gboard could make it much easier to type and edit even without touching your phone (APK teardown)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority TL;DR Google reveals more clues about its improved voice typing feature in Gboard. While Gboard already allows using basic voice commands for editing text, the improved feature could use AI for smarter edits. This feature could be powered by Gemini Nano, allowing for quick, on-device editing with voice. As Google readies the upcoming Pixel 10 series of phones, we’re witnessing increasingly more signs hinting at contextual uses of AI across many of its apps

Cops say criminals use a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS — I say that’s freedom

Calvin Wankhede / Android Authority Police in Spain have reportedly started profiling people based on their phones; specifically, and surprisingly, those carrying Google Pixel devices. Law enforcement officials in Catalonia say they associate Pixels with crime because drug traffickers are increasingly turning to these phones. But it’s not Google’s secure Titan M2 chip that has criminals favoring the Pixel — instead, it’s GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused alternative to the default Pixel OS. As som

I use these 15 hidden Android shortcuts, and you should too

Joe Maring / Android Authority The number of hidden Android shortcuts is mind-boggling. Once you include core apps, there are hundreds, and not all are created equal. Some are niche and depend on how you use your phone. Personally, I’m never going to be much of a one-handed mode or split-screen user, but those features have their fans. My favorite hidden Android shortcuts have much broader appeal. Once you hear about them, you’ll be amazed that you were getting by without them. They’re listed

Our favorite smartphone accessories at Android Authority

Rita El Khoury / Android Authority It’s all well and good having a great Android phone, but an ecosystem of accessories can also make for a more enjoyable experience. Just take a look at all the handy add-ons for Galaxy phones and iPhones that you can buy on Amazon or the millions of other retailers — there are so many! Unsurprisingly, we love phone accessories here at Android Authority, but not all of them are created equal. So I thought it would be a good idea to ask my colleagues about thei

This $99 discreet, subscription-free fitness band is a good budget Whoop tracker alternative

Amazfit Helio Strap The Amazfit Helio Strap isn’t trying to be a high-powered training tool, but instead a comfortable, distraction-free fitness and health tracker that delivers solid wellness insights without the bloat of a screen or the burden of a subscription. If you're after a low-maintenance wearable that quietly does its job and lets you focus on your day, it’s a great value at $99. I’m a screen fiend as much as the next shopper, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a distraction-fre

I almost lost my phone number of 20 years, and here’s what I learned

Megan Ellis / Android Authority Earlier this month, I received a notification to make a chargeable call on my prepaid SIM card to avoid my number being de-activated. The notification comes whenever I’ve almost gone 90 days without making a chargeable transaction on the network and it serves to keep my number alive. I’ve been able to reliably do this since 2017 when I first switched my mobile plan from a contract to prepaid. But between switching phones and no longer having a copy of the SMS no

Galaxy Z Flip 7’s Exynos 2500 benchmarked: Flagship power or foldable flop?

In a first for Samsung’s foldables, the new Galaxy Z Flip 7 sports a Samsung Exynos processor instead of its usual Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. I’m reasonably convinced the Exynos 2500 looks more than good enough on paper, even if it won’t quite match the Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the Galaxy S25 series and Z Fold 7. But the real proof is in the testing, so I’ve run the Galaxy Z Flip 7 through our usual suite of benchmarks to see just how far off the top spot it really is. For comparison, we’ve gra

Apple @ Work: Passkey portability is finally here in iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26

Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with

The MacBook Upgrade Program that starts at $33.28/month

The MacBook is one of the most powerful tools of the modern age. Most people will spend years of their lives in front of their computer. So it makes sense to have a great one. But the way we buy them is broken. High cost. Trade-in headaches. Endless upgrade cycles. For most people, spending upwards of $2,000 upfront puts a huge hole in your pocket, not to mention the hassle and time spent reselling it when you’re ready to upgrade. But there’s a newer option…and it’s growing fast among profes

A stylish shooter, occult Solitaire and other new indie games worth checking out

Welcome to our latest roundup of indie game news and releases. We've got some nifty stuff lined up for you this time around, including a stylish co-op shooter and a very cool Metroidvania concept. But first I'd like to bring your attention to a newish game I picked up in the Steam Summer Sale. It is absolutely breaking my brain — or perhaps it might actually improve my cognitive function. It's called Ambidextro and it's from Majorariatto, which self-published the game (the two-person studio's t

Topics: game games play ra steam

The best Amazon Prime Day deals you can still get today

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . Prime Day is officially over, but you can still save one some of our favorite tech from Apple, Samsung, Sony, Ninja and others. Another Prime Day has come and gone, but a few deals are still lingering on the internet today. Amazon gave folks double the time to shop this year, extendin

The best Prime Day Apple deals on iPads, AirPods, MacBooks and more still available today

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . Even though Prime Day is over, Amazon still has solid deals on Apple gear right now. There’s a reason Apple gear is so in demand. After reviewing nearly every major device out there, our current favorite laptop, smartwatch, tablet and smartphone are all made by Apple. The only problem

Topics: apple best day ipad prime

The best Amazon Prime Day deals under $50 that you can still get today

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . Prime Day may be over, but you can still get budget-friendly gadgets from Apple, Anker, Roku and others at a discount today. Big ticket items like TVs and iPads might get the lion’s share of the attention during Amazon Prime Day, but you can often find affordable tech on sale for even

Topics: day guide prime roku usb

The best Amazon Prime Day TV deals from Sony, LG, Samsung and others still available today

Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products . Amazon Prime Day is always a great time to consider a TV upgrade (aside from Black Friday, of course). While the prices for big screen TVs have fallen quite a bit over the years, even for coveted tech like OLED, there’s always room for additional discounts. July Prime Day may be over

Topics: inch prime roku sony tv

Meta reportedly closes deal to buy AI voice replicator PlayAI

Meta has finalized the agreement to purchase Play AI, a startup based in California providing users with an AI voice cloning tool, according to Bloomberg. The news organization says the "entire PlayAI team" is joining Meta next week, based on the internal memo it has seen. After joining the company, the team will be working under Johan Schalkwyk, who used to oversee speech AI research for Google and who was also a recent hire from another voice AI startup. PlayAI's tool can clone a user's voice

This HDMI mod lets you play Nintendo Switch Lite on a big screen

If you can't get your hands on the latest Nintendo Switch 2, you might be able to keep the FOMO at bay in the meantime with a clever mod for your Switch Lite. Retro Remake's co-founder, Taki Udon, posted a video showing off a working version of the SUPER5 OLED Touch HDMI mod. As the lengthy name suggests, this third-party mod adds an OLED display, a glass touchscreen and HDMI output to the Switch Lite. The Nintendo Switch 2 is barely a month old so it's too early to expect any news on a Switch

Hackers are exploiting critical RCE flaw in Wing FTP Server

Hackers have started to exploit a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Wing FTP Server just one day after technical details on the flaw became public. The observed attack ran multiple enumeration and reconnaissance commands followed by establishing persistence by creating new users. The exploited Wing FTP Server vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-47812 and received the highest severity score. It is a combination of a null byte and Lua code injection that allows remote a unauthenti

Topics: 2025 code cve ftp wing

Our favorite 100+ Prime Day deals still live right now

Tharon Green/ZDNET When does Prime Day end? This year, Amazon Prime Day ends on Friday, July 11, at 11:59 p.m. PT. When is Amazon Prime Day? Amazon Prime Day runs from Tuesday, July 8, to Friday, July 11, 2025. The annual two-day sale was extended to four days in 2025. How long will Prime Day last? Amazon Prime Day will last four days, running from July 8-11, 2025. That's two days longer than the years prior. Where will Prime Day take place? Amazon announced that its July Prime Day event

The best Sam's Club deals still live: TVs, speakers, laptops, and appliances

'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

My favorite anti-Prime Day deals still live from Best Buy, Walmart, & more: Top sales from Amazon's competition

Tharon Green/ZDNET When is Amazon Prime Day 2025? Amazon Prime Day 2025 was July 8-11, 2025. The annual sale event was extended by two days this year. When does Amazon Prime Day end? Amazon Prime Day ended Friday, July 11, at 11:59 p.m. PT (that's 2:59 a.m. ET on Saturday, July 12). Prime Day kicked off on July 8, and the sale was two days longer than last year. Are deals really better during Amazon sales? Deals on flagship Amazon products are typically the best during Amazon's own sales.

Prime Day is over, but our favorite laptop deals are still live

'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

Incus – Next-generation system container, application container, and VM manager

What is Incus?¶ Incus is a next-generation system container, application container, and virtual machine manager. It provides a user experience similar to that of a public cloud. With it, you can easily mix and match both containers and virtual machines, sharing the same underlying storage and network. Incus is image based and provides images for a wide number of Linux distributions. It provides flexibility and scalability for various use cases, with support for different storage backends and

Building Watson: An Overview of the DeepQA Project (2010)

Downloads Ferrucci, D., Brown, E., Chu-Carroll, J., Fan, J., Gondek, D., Kalyanpur, A. A., Lally, A., Murdock, J. W., Nyberg, E., Prager, J., Schlaefer, N., & Welty, C. (2010). Building Watson: An Overview of the DeepQA Project. AI Magazine , 31 (3), 59-79. https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v31i3.2303 License This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is prop

Topics: 10 1609 31 license terms

Only on Nantucket: The Curious Case of the "Stolen" Mercedes

Good questions. And as Monday came and went without any sign of the missing Mercedes, the mystery deepened, and more theories continued to pour in: had it been hotwired and moved to a chop shop? Was it used for a joy ride and ditched in some remote corner of the island? The family asked the Current to share a photo of the vehicle, and the fact that it had been reported stolen. The post set off a deluge of messages along the lines of: "Who steals a car on Nantucket? Where are they going to go?"