Latest Tech News

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

Filtered by: cost Clear Filter

Meal Kits Have Gotten Cheap, but Are They Cheaper Than Groceries?

Bloated costs on everything from eggs to olive oil have folks looking for ways to cut costs. Meal kits -- once considered a splurge -- may not have caused a blip on your thrifty radar. While supermarkets seemingly jack prices up at will, meal kit companies have been more careful when raising consumer costs, since retaining subscribers is key to their survival. Meal kit services such as EveryPlate, Blue Apron or HelloFresh are known for helping busy people save time and eat better, but I crunche

Topics: 50 cost meal oz serving

New iPhone Fold rumors claim more affordable price, ultra-thin hardware

This fall will be all about the iPhone 17 lineup, but rumors for next year’s iPhone Fold are already ramping up. A pair of new rumors indicate Apple’s foldable iPhone could have a more affordable price than expected, and be thinner—when unfolded—than Apple’s current thinnest product. Price of new iPhone Fold could hit $1,800 rather than the $2,000+ expected Today at Fortune, Nick Lichtenberg summarized the findings of a recent UBS report that analyzes Apple’s upcoming iPhone Fold. One of the

The Hidden Costs of AI: How Small Inefficiencies Stack Up

AI is having a major impact on society, from consumer technologies to driving businesses. But among all these large language models and deep neural networks, there are lurking inefficiencies that most people aren’t taking into account. Wasted computational power, hidden costs, the environmental footprint, and more. Whether these inefficiencies are big or small, they all add up. With 58% of companies planning on increasing their investments in AI this year, it’s essential these decision-makers k

Xbox Ally X and Ally leaked prices make the Steam Deck sound like a steal

TL;DR The prices for Xbox’s upcoming handhelds may have leaked. The most expensive model may cost €899, while the cheaper model is said to be €599. While the metadata was scraped from ASUS’ website, these prices could just be place holders. Earlier this year, leaks suggested Xbox was partnering with ASUS to release a handheld under the Xbox brand. A month ago, the company finally confirmed the collaboration during its summer showcase, unveiling two models: the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X and ROG Xbo

Robinhood is up 160% this year, but several obstacles are ahead

Robinhood stock hit an all-time high Friday as the financial services platform continued to rip higher this year, along with bitcoin and other crypto stocks. Robinhood, up more than 160% in 2025, hit an intraday high above $101 before pulling back and closing slightly lower. The reversal came after a Bloomberg report that JPMorgan plans to start charging fintechs for access to customer bank data, a move that could raise costs across the industry. For fintech firms that rely on thin margins to

What would a cheap, Apple A18-powered MacBook actually be good at?

Some Apple rumors just don't go away, hanging around in perpetuity either because they reflect things that Apple is actually testing in its labs or because hope springs eternal. A HomePod-like device with a screen? A replacement for the dear, departed 27-inch iMac? Touchscreen MacBooks? The return of TouchID fingerprint scanning via a sensor located beneath a screen? Maybe these things are coming, but they ain't here yet. However, few rumors have had the longevity or staying power of "Apple is

Nintendo wants to keep ‘traditional approach’ to development as costs skyrocket

A bigger, more powerful Switch means bigger, more intensive games that take more time and money to make. But as development costs skyrocket across the industry, Nintendo seems to have a plan to keep things in control as it transitions into the Switch 2 era. In response to a question during a recent shareholders meeting about the increased costs of making games for its new console, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa admitted that “recent game software development has become larger in scale and

Nintendo wants to keep ‘traditional approach’ to development as costs skyrocket

A bigger, more powerful Switch means bigger, more intensive games that take more time and money to make. But as development costs skyrocket across the industry, Nintendo seems to have a plan to keep things in control as it transitions into the Switch 2 era. In response to a question during a recent shareholders meeting about the increased costs of making games for its new console, Nintendo president Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa admitted that “recent game software development has become

How often is the query plan optimal?

The basic promise of a query optimizer is that it picks the “optimal” query plan. But there’s a catch - the plan selection relies on cost estimates, calculated from selectivity estimates and cost of basic resources (I/O, CPU, …). So the question is, how often do we actually pick the “fastest” plan? And the truth is we actually make mistakes quite often. Consider the following chart, with durations of a simple SELECT query with a range condition. The condition is varied to match different fracti

The End of Moore's Law for AI? Gemini Flash Offers a Warning

For the past few years, the AI industry has operated under its own version of Moore's Law: an unwavering belief that the cost of intelligence would perpetually decrease by orders of magnitude each year. Like clockwork, each new model generation promised to be not only more capable but also cheaper to run. Last week, Google quietly broke that trend. In a move that at first went unnoticed, Google significantly increased the price of its popular Gemini 2.5 Flash model. The input token price double

The inference trap: How cloud providers are eating your AI margins

This article is part of VentureBeat’s special issue, “The Real Cost of AI: Performance, Efficiency and ROI at Scale.” Read more from this special issue. AI has become the holy grail of modern companies. Whether it’s customer service or something as niche as pipeline maintenance, organizations in every domain are now implementing AI technologies — from foundation models to VLAs — to make things more efficient. The goal is straightforward: automate tasks to deliver outcomes more efficiently and s

Model minimalism: The new AI strategy saving companies millions

This article is part of VentureBeat’s special issue, “The Real Cost of AI: Performance, Efficiency and ROI at Scale.” Read more from this special issue. The advent of large language models (LLMs) has made it easier for enterprises to envision the kinds of projects they can undertake, leading to a surge in pilot programs now transitioning to deployment. However, as these projects gained momentum, enterprises realized that the earlier LLMs they had used were unwieldy and, worse, expensive. Ente

Microsoft Dependency Has Risks

There was a recent incident where Microsoft somehow allegedly blocked a mailbox of a sanctioned individual. Any organization highly depending on MS products that might come into the crosshair should ask - can this happen to me? What would be the cost? How much I invest into prevention of this scenario? In this article I try to get the facts straight and use a return on security investment calculation to try and judge this situation in a rational way. Let’s grab our tinfoil hats and find out if i

Topics: cost let microsoft ms usd

MIT engineers use 3D-printed steel to repair corroded bridge

The big picture: According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, more than half of the 623,218 bridges in the US are in a state of significant deterioration. Getting them back in good standing would cost north of $191 billion – no small chunk of change. For researchers at MIT, finding a more cost-effective solution using modern technology is a worthy cause. Using a laser-based additive manufacturing technique called cold spray, the team successfully repaired a corroded section of a bridge

Sally celebrates complicated legacy of first US woman in space

"Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure, she carried a secret." On June 18, 1983, NASA astronaut Sally Ride made history as the first American woman in space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger. National Geographic is marking the occasion with a new documentary on the astronaut's life: Sally. In addition to revisiting her storied career, the film provides an unprecedented look at the famously private Ride's personal life—notably

Kia EV4 Review: Price, Specs, Availability

The 2026 Kia EV4 could be an important vehicle in the ongoing global EV transition. To be sold in 140 markets globally, the EV4 is a carefully calibrated shot at bringing long-range electric power into the high-volume mainstream segment of compact sedans and hatchbacks at an affordable price. US and Asian markets will get an EV4 sedan (the model I spent the day with for this review), now built in Korea. Europeans’ preference for five-doors means only an EV4 hatchback will be available in that r

Topics: cost ev4 kia range volt

The Tech Job Meltdown

He wrote me a prescription; he said “You are depressed I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest Come back and see me later, next patient please Send in another victim of industrial disease” Industrial Disease, Dire Straits The Google campus doesn’t look as friendly as it used to. (this ia actually from Bartertown in Mad Max 3 - you can see Thunderdome in the middle) Since the start of 2023, more than half-a-million tech workers have been laid off. This isn’t the impact of COV

Tesla's new Model S and X vehicles are now available in the US

Tesla has officially launched new versions of the Model S and the Model X in the US. As Electrek notes, however, the upgrades may not be quite as big or compelling as one could hope when the vehicles now cost $5,000 more. The automaker has posted a list of updates for the vehicles on X, including a new Frost Blue paint color option and a range of up to 410 miles for the Model S Long Range version, which is Tesla's longest range yet. Getting the Frost Blue paint will cost buyers $2,500 more, howe

Worldwide power grid with glass insulated HVDC cables

Worldwide power grid with glass insulated HVDC cables. Moving electricity around the world has huge financial and environmental benefits. Unfortunately, current power transmission systems are both lossy and expensive to build. This post explores an alternative design for cables to make undersea power transmission substantially cheaper. Idea Fused silica (glass) is a really good insulator (500 MV/m, vs 150 MV/mm for XLPE plastic), and is very cheap. By using it as cable insulation, cables can

iPhone inflation? Industry analyst predicts significant price bumps for iPhone 17 series

Jason Hiner/ZDNET The latest US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump have put Apple at a bit of a crossroads. With multiple tariffs impacting countries worldwide, including a 10% charge on all imports from China, electronics makers like Apple will soon have to decide if they'll take the brunt of the damage or redirect it to end consumers by increasing the price of goods. That includes the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Also: Apple launches $599 iPhone 16e: Best features, specs, and

Industry analyst predicts iPhones to get 9% price hike amidst US tariffs - and I believe it

Jason Hiner/ZDNET The latest US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump have put Apple at a bit of a crossroads. With multiple tariffs impacting countries worldwide, including a 10% charge on all imports from China, electronics makers like Apple will soon have to decide if they'll take the brunt of the damage or redirect it to end consumers by increasing the price of goods. That includes the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Also: Apple launches $599 iPhone 16e: Best features, specs, and

Your next iPhone may get a significant price increase - this analyst thinks it's inevitable

Jason Hiner/ZDNET The latest US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump have put Apple at a bit of a crossroads. With multiple tariffs impacting countries worldwide, including a 10% charge on all imports from China, electronics makers like Apple will soon have to decide if they'll take the brunt of the damage or redirect it to end consumers by increasing the price of goods. That includes the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. Also: Apple launches $599 iPhone 16e: Best features, specs, and